Weekly Wrap: Let's get the ball rolling

The story which is the biggest of the week, in my view, is our piece about the delays in appointing a commissioner of financial advisers.

Friday, March 27th 2009, 4:50PM

I write more about this in Phil's Blog, but the key point is that if someone isn't appointed soon then there could well be delays in getting the new regs in place by next year.

As much as we try to keep ING out of the news for the week, it seems almost impossible at the moment! We have a couple of pieces; the first is the latest version of its repayment plan for the CDO funds, the second is around people. ING's front man to the adviser community, Wayne Becker aka Boris has resigned. The big question is where is he going?

There is lots of speculation at the moment, one story has him joining David Greenslade's Strategi Group, and another has him getting involved with the proposed planning group which Clayton Copplestone is trying to establish. Time will tell, but the whole group thing is fascinating as it seems to be pulling together a bunch of industry old-timers and a number of people who have strong links to ING.

Sticking with ING, we understand there have been a few redundancies at the firm and changes to what is happening. My guess is that we are likely to see quite a few more changes of people in key roles at the company over the next few months. The team has been stable and together for a long time. History tends to show that when changes to teams like this start, they go on for a while.

The other news this week is that trustees and their role with finance companies is under scrutiny. About time too. This is a subject for another blog and there is no doubt need for some significant changes in the supervision of the finance company sector.

In our other news about investments we report that Fonterra may be planning another bond issue; we have the results of the Tower bond offer; a report that Vector may be the next bond offer to come to market and also; a round-up of the latest news in this sector.

There have been a heap of mortgage rate changes in the past few days with three, four and five-year rates rising. A full list of rates is here. Later today we will have our weekly report on changes during the week.

The other key mortgage story is that Lombard has sought to put its subsidiary Tasman Mortgages into liquidation.

One of the news items this week is that the government has officially delayed the implementation of new rules around the taxation of life insurance products. This means the life offices, advisers and policyholders can breathe a sigh of relief. However, it's only a delay. The changes will happen.

Also in our Insurance News centre this week we have the latest columns from AXA and Russell Hutchinson, along with an update on the health insurance sector.

To wrap up this week's newsletter, it is appropriate to acknowledge the contribution Richard Thomas has made to the PAA.

Have a great weekend.
Philip