UPDATED: First NZ Capital has helped with the establishment of a new funds management firm, however isn't planning to use it to manage its own funds.

Fidelity Life has paid out some $10.9 million in interest payments to about 1,400 investors after it suspended payments last year due to the global credit crunch.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s will retain its ‘wait and see’ attitude around South Canterbury Finance as the finance company undergoes an overhaul with Timaru-millionaire Allan Hubbard’s Southbury Group.

Strategic Finance's chief executive Kerry Finnigan has wound back the amount of hours he is devoting to recovering loans for the business as the board reviews his contract a year on from the moratorium in December 2008.

House values rose 2.8% last year after they hit a bottom in April, and steadily improved from there, according to QV Valuations.

In the lead-up to the holiday period, receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte gave investors updates on the state of a handful of failed finance companies - though not all of them gave cause for Christmas cheer.

Failed finance company Bridgecorp receivers have all but given up hope of clawing back any money for investors from the ill-fated Momi resort development in Fiji.

Commercial property owners and investors will be left to “foot the bill” of a proposed land tax, according to the Property Council of New Zealand.

Six institutions have pulled out of the government’s retail deposit guarantee after they decided not to accept the latest round of tweaks to the scheme.

Marac will test the waters early next year when it launches its first term deposit not covered by the government's retail deposit guarantee scheme.

House prices are set to decline as rising interest rates and tougher credit conditions deter a second wave of buyers from entering the property market, according to ANZ National Bank’s property gauges.

Cash PIEs have been incredibly popular attracting billions of dollars of investors' money since they were invented several years ago. However, changes to the government's deposit guarantee scheme will see them lose their protected status.

PGG Wrightson Finance, the finance unit of the rural services company, has set up a formal banking syndicate with Bank of New Zealand and Commonwealth Bank of Australia to provide wholesale funding to the business for the next two years.

National Bank of Australia, the parent of Bank of New Zealand, has trumped AMP's offer to buy AXA Asia Pacific Holdings in a similar arrangement to pick up the Australasian businesses as the pension plan provider.

Tower Investments will be aggressively expanding over the coming two years as it looks to double its advisory services to cope with strong demand for its relatively conservative products.

New regulations for moratorium proposals will give investors the power to vote for receivership if the offer does not proceed as expected.