Growth in its lending book has helped ASB report a sixth-straight annual profit increase while net interest margins have been squeezed.

Camelot adds new advisers and rolls out a new brand image.

Ralph Stewart’s Retirement Income Group is looking to raise up to $2 million in new capital to help grow the business which includes working with KiwiSaver providers and running a new super fund for UK pension transfers.

Next week there will no doubt be a lot of focus on what the Reserve Bank says at its official cash rate and monetary policy statement announcement. The firm view is that the OCR will come down and that banks will not pass on all the decrease in their floating rates. The reason for that is simply that they are under cost pressures across their businesses and this is a simple way to claw back some savings.

RESIMAC says it will continue lending up to 80% but it is making some changes to its products and pricing to help manage the mix of owner-occupied lending and property investment loans.