Mortgage arrears have risen for the third consecutive month and are higher than last year's levels, according to figures from the credit bureau Centrix.

Mortgage borrowers rolling off a fixed term interest rate in the next few weeks are expected to join the rush to a six month floating rate even though the next OCR drop isn’t expected until the middle of February.

Reserve Bank licensed deposit taker Xceda is starting to broaden out its loan products offering.

Leading mortgage aggregator NZFSG’s chief executive Baden Martin isn’t convinced advisers need to make a complaint to the FMA about banks’ persistently slow home loan processing times.

Partners Life has decided to stop using its Customer Outcome Matrix (COM) and change its commission structure.

Another 0.50% drop in the OCR is expected from the Reserve Bank in February.

The Reserve Bank's forecasts were predicated on an assumption that house prices will rise about 7% in each of the next two calendar years, governor Adrian Orr told journalists after RBNZ cut its official cash rate (OCR) from 4.75% to 4.25%.

The Reserve Bank has cut its official cash rate (OCR) to 4.25%, in line with most economists' expectations, and says it's likely to cut further next year.

The Monetary Policy Committee today agreed to reduce the Official Cash Rate by 50 basis points to 4.25 percent.

ASB Bank seemed to be trying to make up previous quarters' mortgage market share losses in the September quarter while the government's Kiwibank was the second biggest lender in the latest three months.