Weekly Wrap: Festive final wrap

It's been a huge year for the financial services industry and we have covered many topics and issues on goodreturns.co.nz and in ASSET Magazine.

Friday, December 21st 2007, 3:44PM

A couple of pretty big stories emerged this week. One which is fascinating was the move by Sam Stubbs from Hanover to Tower Investments where he takes over from Tony Hildyard.

I've only met Sam when he took part in ASSET Magazine's Roundtable and was impressed with him. No doubt it is a great appointment for Tower and will certainly ease any fears investors and advisers had about the company, following the departure of Hildyard and equities manager Wayne Stetchman earlier this year.

While that is good news for Tower, Bridgecorp investors got an unwanted surprise this week. The latest report from the receiver painted a pretty grim picture. Likely payouts have shrunk and the timing of any dividends is uncertain.

Also this week we have in depositrates.co.nz news of a first payment to Clegg and Co investors.

The other big report was the review of New Zealand's retirement income policies. In the report, penned by Retirement Commission Diana Crossan, it suggests that the country can't afford NZ Superannuation (the state pension) and KiwiSaver. It seems the report is softening the public up for changes, such as raising the age of eligibility for the pension. This has been given a big raspberry by politicians – yet it is a sensible and logical thing to do.

There are quite a few new investments in the market at the moment. In Good Returns we have a Special Report on Savings and Loans latest Kauri Units offer, plus a news story.

A couple of offers which closed are the South Canterbury Finance notes and Credit Agricole's deeply discounted notes, which raised $125 million and $250 million respectively. Details on these and the final rates are here.

One area to watch next year is the tightening liquidity for borrowers. We are hearing that with the problems in the finance company sector and credit crunch that it's getting harder and harder to borrow money. There is a piece in the Mortgage Centre here, plus our regular weekly Home Loan report which shows two-year fixed rates continue to creep up.

There is a story we are looking into today that one non-bank lender may have stopped lending because of some irregularities. Lookout for an update on this in the Mortgage Centre.

No Weekly Wrap would be complete without a few appointments. The main ones this week are a new role for former FundSource general manager Binu Paul, and some changes at Tyndall as it winds up to take advantage of the new environment.

Although New Zealand is going into slowdown mode (with a mad rush to get there), Good Returns will continue to provide you with news and information over the next couple of weeks so remember to continue visiting the site.

However, this is the last Weekly Wrap for the year, so from all the team at Good Returns I wish you a safe and happy Christmas.