Labour says alarm bells should be ringing following David Hisco's comments.

LISTEN ABOVE: Market analyst Christian Hawkesby speaks to Andrew Dickens

In an unusually outspoken article, the ANZ boss has called for major banks to take action on housing and voluntarily tighten their lending criteria.

Housing spokesman Phil Twyford said big bank bosses don't enter the public debate on these sorts of issues very often.

"If you read David Hisco's comments, you don't really have to read between the lines very much to realise this is a damning indictment of the government's mishandling of the housing crisis.

"There is a chorus now of voices coming out with some very bold statements. The government's looking increasingly isolated and out of touch."

Banking expert David Tripe said it'll be interesting to watch how other banks respond to calls by the head of the ANZ, for tougher lending restrictions.

Mr Tripe, who is Massey University associate head of economics and finance, said there are questions around whether bank executives can collaborate in such a way.

He said it might be seen as anti-competitive behaviour.

"What he's doing is he's putting a message out there. The interesting thing to see will be the extent other banks respond, indicate some agreement with them, or decide whether they should go on lending aggressively."

Mr Tripe said the banks' concern is that house prices might fall, and suddenly loans won't be worth what the banks had lent them at.

"There's always this contradiction in banking between trying to increase your lending, and trying to make sure that the lending you do is safe."

Christian Hawkesby, formerly with the Reserve Bank now with Harbour Asset Management, told Andrew Dickens Mr Hisco shares a lot of the Reserve Bank's concerns.

"There's a lot of political and regulatory pressure that the banks are facing and they're really being told that they need to be part of the solution. They need to be managing their risk even better, otherwise more restrictions and regulations are going to be thrust upon them."

The Government says it agrees with some of what the boss of ANZ Bank says about the housing market - and disagrees with other parts of it.

Associate finance minister Steven Joyce said they already have a comprehensive plan and are working in a range of these areas.

He said that involves the Reserve Bank, councils and Government.