Feeling the pulse of the financial sector

The survey of all economic sectors includes feedback from financial investment and insurance respondents.

Financial planners reported “surprising amounts of money around” and “most (if not all) going offshore.” However there is growing concern about “a lot of extreme ugliness on the debenture front as finance companies look to roll their books with deposits drying up.”

Bank of New Zealand chief economist Tony Alexander says the debentures market is getting tight. “It must be getting hard now going by the front page advertising. That would, at least partly reflect the recent reports about some pretty hefty exposure to the property sector by those investments.”

Last week the issue hit the headlines with the ASB Group Investments warning some of the investments in that market are riskier than they look.