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MR - Weekly News

Flurry of cuts to two-year rates

Friday 19th of November 2010

There has been a flurry of interest rate changes this week afetr a quiet month, with four lenders (Public Trust, Napier Building Society, Kiwibank and TSB) dropping two-year rates following BNZ's move last week  to drop its two-year rate to 6.65%.

Public Trust is offering the lowest fixed rates for a non-bank lender with its two-year rate at 6.45% and TSB undercut Kiwibank today by 1 basis point offering the lowest bank two-year rate of 6.58%.

Despite this, BNZ economist Tony Alexander says if the intention of borrowers all along has been to sit floating simply waiting for the low point in fixed rates, then he would be inclined to fix for two-years now as his analysis of the margins suggests we are close to a round of rate rises.

The Banking Ombudsman reported this week that the general downturn in the economy, the ING frozen funds debacle and an 18% rise in mortgage finance complaints contributed to a year "unprecedented in the history" of the scheme.

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Latest Comments
FMA outlines its latest expectations for advisers
Paul Flood: The danger is that the 'goalposts' (regarding what is acceptable or unacceptable adviser conduct) may be susceptible to change. Our 'Principles based' legal/regulatory environment lends itself to “prevalence-induced concept change” over time, perhaps not so much in the written laws and Code, as in the interpretation of the prescribed principles.
19 hours ago Steve Wright
FMA outlines its latest expectations for advisers
Just a tip, if you use more than six, six letter words in a sentence you lose most Kiwi's. So avoid client/adviser confusion when writing your post or article if you would like it read and understood. Ironically, my last sentence was not likely read.
22 hours ago Backstage
FMA outlines its latest expectations for advisers
All things said are great aspirational goals for a great financial advice industry, it mirrors what both the legislation and the code requires. However, like most things discussed it talks about what's expected not how it's done. The hardest aspect of financial advice today isn't what it is, it is how it is done. The how only comes from those that have done it, the how is only provided with examples. Guidance documents that spell out what's required along side how it it done. We’re still dealing with the same issues we started with in 2021, figuring out the how. And figuring out the how in every advice business is consuming resources that could easily be shortcut by the FMA demonstrating what they are expecting. It's not about “do it this way” its about this is the sorts of things we’re looking for. In the absence of standards and expectations, guesswork prevails. That represents significant risk to FAPs and the result is onerous overcooked advice processes for multiple advice operations and undercooked she’ll be right for single operators focused on getting the work done. Both approaches have potential for harm and as its been said earlier, leaves advisers open to explain they haven't been speeding with the authorities have pulled them over. The advice industry needs guidance on the how we know the what already.
2 days ago Jon-Paul Hale
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2 days ago Jon-Paul Hale
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To correct errors in my previous post: "policies, templates, and controls" should read "policies, processes, systems and controls", and "is more conductive" should read "is more conducive".
3 days ago Paul Flood