The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 2.5%.

Money laundering risk in the financial adviser industry is to be assessed in a survey by the Securities Commission and this will also help financial advisers to identify suspicious transactions.

Kiwibank is considering raising up to $150 million through the sale of perpetual preference shares to the public.

A new redundancy and life insurance product called Stop-Gap has exceeded launch expectations as unemployment during the recession highlights the need to be covered.

Auckland

Trading banks will no longer have access to government-guaranteed wholesale funding after the scheme - a response to the 2008 global financial crisis - closes on April 30, Finance Minister Bill English announced today.

The Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) is looking to voluntarily implement and work on some of the Capital Markets Development (CMD) Taskforce recommendations.

A $220 million writedown by Allied Farmers of its recently acquired Hanover/United investments portfolio may not necessarily result in zero value being extracted from those positions, McDouall Stuart said in its market weekly update.

Concerns over KiwiSaver fund management have led to the government fast tracking work to ensure the integrity of KiwiSaver is maintained for the 1.3 million people and $4.88 billion of their money invested in the scheme.

AXA chief executive Ralph Stewart has fronted up and admitted the savings industry and the government betrayed New Zealanders over the years.

Tracey-Lee Pettifer has joined Perpetual Portfolio Management (PPM) in the role of Head of Adviser Services.  Pettifer was previously with AMP running the investment product team and before then ran the adviser support team with ASB.

Risky business assessed in survey; Your thoughts on retirement income policy; Tower's KiwiSaver PPP call