A key question Guinness Peat Group board has yet to answer is what it will do with its NZX listed capital notes.

Allied Farmers isn't commenting on Hanover Finance directors' accusations of mismanagement of the Hanover assets Allied gained from a debt-for-equity swap in late 2009.

Fidelity Life is keenly interested in Guinness Peat Group's 35% stake in fellow insurance company Tower and says it has already offered to buy its life business.

Tower discovered a cornerstone stake was officially up for sale at the same time as the rest of the market.

Hanover Finance's directors are accusing Allied Farmers of mismanaging the former finance company assets it gained from a debt-for-equity swap in late 2009.

Hanover Finance's directors are accusing Allied Farmers of mismanaging the former finance company assets it gained from a debt-for-equity swap in late 2009.

NZF Group's potential new business partner may be signed up within two or three weeks.

Home-owners can be confident floating mortgage rates won't be rising for some time following Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard's expected decision to keep interest rates on hold.

With consumers keeping a tight rein on their wallets and concentrating on paying off debt rather than borrowing more, Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard won't be raising rates this week, economists say.

The biggest issue facing the surviving finance companies now is winning back the trust of their investors, says John Kensington, a partner at accounting firm KPMG.

The actual amount of capital non-bank deposit-taking institutions (NBDT) with credit ratings now have to hold is likely to be half as much again as banks, even though the nominal minimum for both banks and non-banks is the same at 8% of total assets, says accounting firm KPMG.

Finance companies surveyed by KPMG cut costs dramatically and lifted their interest margins by nearly two percentage points in the latest year.

The last of the banks to lodge its GDS, community-owned TSB Bank grew its mortgage book by $52.8 million to $2.29 billion in the three months.

Broadlands Finance's strategic shift towards commercial lending was part of Standard & Poor's rationale for cutting its credit rating from "BB-" to "B" earlier this month.

SBS Bank's mortgage book resumed growth in the September quarter but its share of the mortgage market eased.

Broadlands Finance's September half-year accounts will show a dramatically improved position from March 31 because of the different attitude to assessing impaired loans taken by its new auditor.