The odds that Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard will start hiking interest rates asooner than later have just shortened.

ANZ Bank's mortgage book appears to have grown strongly in the March quarter after a number of quarters of very sluggish growth and its profitability soared.

Fund managers are disappointed at the government's well-flagged tinkering with the KiwiSaver scheme but are relieved the changes will still mean KiwiSaver accounts growing over time.

Z Energy, formerly Greenstone Energy Finance, says it is considering another retail bond issue on similar terms to last year's $147 million issue which ranked equally with Z's banks.

Westpac's mortgage book grew between $170 million and $203 million in the three months ended March and it looks like it increased its market share.

Canterbury University has sufficient financial resources to manage its immediate obligations and is talking to the government about how to meet any shortfall in the amount its insurers pay, says vice-chancellor Rod Carr in a letter to holders of the university's $50 million of listed bonds.

AMP's life insurance policies lapsed at about twice its very sluggish new business in the three biggest product categories during the March quarter while the largest player, Sovereign, also lost market share.

Most companies in the life insurance industry showed less new business in the March quarter compared with December and the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) blames the continuing impact of the weak economy.

Irongate Property said it has asked trustee Perpetual Trust to appoint a receiver.

South Canterbury Finance's (SCF) receivers have sold its 78.7% stake in Scales Corporation to Direct Capital for about $44 million or $2 per share.

The flight of money out of finance companies and insurance money from the first Canterbury earthquake has helped the deposit interest rate war abate, at least for now, says accounting firm KPMG.

NZF Group has missed yet another deadline for announcing a deal with much-needed equity partners.

Standard & Poor's has raised GFNZ Group's credit rating as promised, but only to one notch below the rating it held until March 18.

Floating mortgage rates won't be rising any time soon with Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard holding interest rates steady and emphasising the uncertain economic outlook means they will stay there for some time.

Floating mortgage rates won't be rising any time soon with Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard holding interest rates steady and emphasising the uncertain economic outlook means they will stay there for some time.

Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard is likely to leave interest rates unchanged this Thursday and the focus will be on how upbeat or otherwise his comments are.