Kiwi homeowners are paying down mortgage debt at a faster rate, taking advantage of the extended period of record low interest rates, according to new figures from Westpac.

There seems to have been little action in the past year on the development of the new financial advice regime, one commentator says.

Following a successful second speed dating event in Wellington, New Zealand's non-banks are set to hold more special events in the New Year as adviser interest grows.

Life for rental property owners may become tougher as Labour’s newbie Housing Minister Phil Twyford tries to “make life better for renters”, Stop the War on Tenancies founder Mike Butler warns.

Businesses will have more ways to train new advisers into the business under the new advice regime for financial advisers, the chairman of the working group developing the code of conduct says.

ASB has played down speculation it will follow owner CBA by supporting a fee-for-service model for mortgage advice, following comments made by CBA CEO Matt Comyn to the Royal Commission this week.

Cigna chief executive Gail Costa says the addition of the adviser channel will mean positive changes for her business.

Financial Advice New Zealand does not need to have an official regulatory role under the new financial advice regime, its chief executive says.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says more details about disclosure requirements for financial advisers will be available in early 2019.

OnePath and Cigna become one at the end of this month.

Geoff Annuls weighed into the servicing debate a couple of days ago, and while a reasonable article, failed to cover a few pertinent points.

ASB's quarterly outlook for the New Zealand economic predicts "sunny skies ahead", with low rates until the second half of 2020 and a peak of just 2.75% in the next OCR cycle.

There appears to be deep divisions among members of the Tax Working Group, and its final report is likely to include dissenting decisions from members. 

Advisers need to be talking to clients about responsible investment options; rather than just putting the questions into the too hard basket.

We've been a little quiet with our weekly TMM newsletters so thought it was time to get them going again. Here's a wrap of last week's news and some thoughts on what's happening in the market.