Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard slashed interest rates by more than most had expected but few were surprise at the magnitude of the cut, given the deteriorating global outlook.

A number of the former Wizard Home Loans are working on forming a new mortgage broking group following Wizard’s owner GE Money’s decision late last year to pull out of New Zealand.

Economists are expecting another humungous cut in the official cash rate (OCR) on Thursday as the economic outlook continues to get murkier.

The New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association has axed its first full-time chief executive as a cost-cutting measure.

Community trust-owned TSB Bank’s profit jumped 15% in the September quarter while its mortgage book was little changed.

Community trust-owned TSB Bank’s profit jumped 15% in the September quarter while its mortgage book was little changed.

Westpac New Zealand’s fourth quarter net profit shrank slightly as its provisions for bad debts rose and its share of the mortgage market also dipped.

The National Australia Bank-owned Bank of New Zealand’s (BNZ) share of the mortgage market apparently fell sharply in the September quarter but that reflects it reporting under the new Basel ll rules for the first time.

Even as Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard reiterates last week’s message that lenders should be passing on his whopping rate cuts to their customers, some are still offering extremely high floating mortgage rates.

The HongKong & Shanghai Banking Corp’s New Zealand branch’s mortgage book continued to shrink in the September quarter, although its profitability increased strongly.

Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard met the most extreme expectations in slashing interest rates, citing ongoing financial market turmoil and the deteriorating global economy.

Kiwibank and ASB Bank between them accounted for nearly 82% of the growth in mortgage lending by registered banks in the September quarter, although both saw profitability slip in the three months.

A majority of economists now expect a whopper of a rate cut when Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard delivers his latest monetary policy statement on Thursday.

New Zealand’s largest bank, ANZ National Bank, saw its fourth quarter profits slump sharply as its provisions for impaired loans nearly doubled in the three months ended September.

Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard is almost universally expected to slash rates again in December by at least the same magnitude as October’s unprecedented cut reflecting the increasingly gloomy global growth outlook and the collapse of inflation domestically.

Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard cut interest rates by an unprecedented amount citing ongoing global financial market turmoil and a deteriorating outlook for world growth.