Westpac New Zealand sped up its pace of mortgage lending in the six months ended March, adding $1.51 billion in net new mortgages after growth of only a third of that in the previous six months ended September.

ANZ Investments, the biggest KiwiSaver provider, has had a rethink of its investment beliefs and made changes to how it manages funds.

Milford Asset Management’s KiwiSaver funds enjoyed a better performance than all other KiwiSaver funds in the March quarter but returns were generally poor, the latest Melville Jessup Weaver survey shows.

Elevation Capital founder Chris Swasbrook is expecting that the huge following Blackbull Markets analyst Eden Bradfield has built up will be instrumental in helping to grow the size of his firm’s funds under management, currently $175 million.

With the Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) legislation having kicked in from March 31, one of the things that the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) will be focusing on will be how quickly banks pass on changes in the official cash rate (OCR) to borrowers.

BNZ has implemented a new two-tier system for dealing with mortgage advisers, and some advisers aren't happy with the changes.

It appears that early this year, the Bank of New Zealand instituted a new two-tier system for dealing with mortgage advisers.

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has finally delivered a definitive statement of how it views goods and services tax (GST) in relation to funds management.

The Reserve Bank has bowed to pressure from the Commerce Commission, the banks and submitters to parliament’s banking inquiry and will conduct a review of its bank capital requirements.

Westpac gave an apparently contradictory answer as to why it was so slow to pass on the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cut last month to parliament’s finance and expenditure committee’s banking inquiry.

[UPDATED] Insurance advisers need to understand that most insurers will only cover non-Pharmac-funded cancer drugs if they have been approved by Medsafe and also indicated as treatment for the specific type of cancer their client develops.

The cost to a bank of using mortgage advisers to originate mortgages is marginal compared to the cost of running its own proprietary origination operation, according to Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkovich.

Heartland Bank is extending its reverse mortgage offering to include a kind of bridging finance for those wishing to buy a unit in a retirement village.

The Reserve Bank’s capital requirements and other regulatory changes have been causing a significant drag on bank lending, according to accounting firm KPMG’s latest survey of financial institutions.

The Reserve Bank’s capital requirements and other regulatory changes have been causing a significant drag on bank lending, according to accounting firm KPMG’s latest survey of financial institutions.