News Round Up

PTO to get new rules, AJ and WIM keep their stars, Credit Unions tax status under review, WiNZ on track.

Sunday, September 10th 2000, 12:59AM

The Public Trust Office will have more favourable legislation to work under by the end of this year, the minister in charge of the office and deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton says.

He told Parliament last week that legislation modernising the framework in which Public Trust operates will be introduced before Christmas for implementation next year.

"The last government hampered Public Trust with a range of outdated rules. For example public Trust is unable to move quickly to change its interest rate," he said. "In many cases it has to ask for an Order in Council which can take three weeks or more, whereas a bank can change its interest rate in an afternoon."

Westpac and AJ retain their stars

Research house Morningstar says that WestpacTrust Investment Management and Armstrong Jones will retain their five star ratings following their decision to form a strategic alliance.

Under the alliance the bank will outsource management of all its managed funds to AJ. This will, based on June 30 figures, give AJ 15% of the unlisted retail funds market.

Morningstar says, in a report commissioned by WestpacTrust, that there will be no immediate changes to WIM's products, guidelines or investment objectives. However, over time the portfolios will move to be more closely aligned with AJs underlying asset pools.

It says WIM decided to oursource this work as it considered the manufacture and administration of managed funds was not one of its core areas of activity. "Outsourcing was not driven by cost reduction."

Morningstar says it will keep a watching brief on the formation of the alliance, and it will do a full qualitative ratings review on the fourth quarter of this year.

Status of credit unions under review
The Government is reviewing the tax status of credit unions, and whether they should continue to enjoy the income tax exemption granted to them back in 1891.

The Government's recent decision to raise from $40,000 to $250,000 the deposit limit for credit unions raises issues about their future tax status, Revenue Minister Michael Cullen said.

"The change was sought by the credit unions and will allow them to increase their potential market share," Dr Cullen said.

New Zealand has 98 credit unions which together have over 180,000 members, total assets of over $400 million, and annual income of over $46 million. They are now exempt from income tax.

"The question now is whether this now gives them an unfair competitive advantage over other providers of financial services.

An issues paper has been put out on the subject.

WiNZ tracks index closely
AMP Investment Management says, in a notice to the Stock Exchange, that its WiNZ fund has tracked its benchmark index very closely since January 1.

It says that in the period to June 30 the WiNZ unit price rose 6.33% while the AMP World Index rose 6.15%.

Sometimes there are differences in the prices because the AMP World Index is calculated using US closing prices and the WiNZ return is calculated using New Zealand closing prices.

Brokerage incurred to track the index is paid by the manager out of its management fees. The exception to this is if any brokerage is incurred as a result of any country change to the index.

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