[With VIDEO] A bare majority of actively managed New Zealand equity funds managed to beat the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index in calendar 2023 but less than a quarter managed to outperform over 15 years.

A consortium led by the Salter Brothers Tech Fund has launched a takeover scheme for small business lender Prospa Group backed by the latter's board that values Prospa at A$74 million.

nib NZ reported “robust” policyholder growth of 2.3% in the six months ended December but its underlying profit was impacted by high service cost inflation.

NZX says its Smartshares subsidiary grew funds under management (FUM) grew 32.9% to $11 billion in calendar 2023 with FUM growth excluding acquisitions rising 14%.

Kiwibank grew its its mortgage book by $1.29 billion in the six months ended December and accounted for nearly a quarter of all mortgage lending by registered banks for the six months, based on Reserve Bank data.

AMP said its New Zealand wealth management business' KiwiSaver operations experienced a “challenging” second-half in 2023 with net cashflow for the year of A$70 million.

nib New Zealand has decided to put on hold changes it had planned to its commercial model, the adviser commission rates and to the nib intermediary agreement because of glitches in its IT service delivery.

The ASB Bank has only 370 out of its about 230,000 home loan customers that have got into financial strife as a result of rising interest rates, chief executive Vittoria Shortt says.

ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt acknowledges her bank has lost ground with mortgage advisers because of its uncompetitive pricing, but she isn't promising anything is going to change in a hurry.

New Zealanders with mortgages are about 80% through the process of transitioning to higher interest rates, Chris McDonald, the Reserve Bank's manager of system monitoring and analysis told parliament's finance and expenditure committee.

Financial Services Council (FSC) chief executive Richard Klipin has resigned although he will stay on until his replacement is found to ensure a smooth transition.

My Fiduciary is moving to PIE (portfolio investment entity) only portfolio recommendations in light of the trustee tax rate rising to 39% from April 1 to align it with the top personal tax rate.

Fisher Funds chalked up very sluggish growth in its KiwiSaver funds under management (FUM) through the first quarter of owning Kiwi Wealth but the wholesale side of its business is growing at double-digit rates.

Performing well in the December quarter was at odds with KiwiSaver funds' longer-term performance and vice versa, according to the latest MJW survey.

Vault Digital Funds is slashing its headline annual fee as a result of the US regulator allowing 11 firms, including Blackrock and Fidelity, to market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on bitcoin.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are like no other security.