Auckland

The Companies Office has laid criminal charges against Five Star Consumer Finance directors Marcus MacDonald, Anthony Bowden and Nicholas Kirk. De facto director Neill Williams has also been charged.

SBS Bank has launched its a cash PIE term investment account in competiton with other banks.

Fidelity Life has made two new appointments. The first is a key account manager to look after dealer groups; the second is a business development manager for the South Island.

The Labour, Progressive and Green parties claim banks propped up their profit margins by not passing on cuts to the official cash rate earlier this year and raised questions about the effectiveness of monetary policy.

Auckland

Tower Investments has created a new role of head of KiwiSaver and has appointed Matt Johns to the position.

Christchurch

The DecisionMakers Financial Services Group has added another high calibre financial adviser to its ranks.

Taking stock a year on: According to the consensus, a global economic recovery has begun.    

The risk of a “double-dip” in New Zealand’s economic fortunes has been reduced now that the recovery has more than just housing to fall back on, this week’s ASB Business Weekly suggests.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the parent of ASB, said the deposit rate competition in New Zealand was damping its profit margin, in its September quarterly update, after it boosted its rates over the weekend.