Weekly Wrap: Bridgecorp collapse dominates news

No points for guessing what the big story of the week was. The collapse of Bridgecorp was in many people's views a case of when, not if.

Friday, July 6th 2007, 3:24PM

It has been fascinating to see the response from advisers and the public to Bridgecorp's demise. We have some of the comments here, and will post more later.

One which struck me was the point that if people knew Bridgecorp was in trouble, why wasn't the public made aware of this? Well, the answer is a little complex in that it's not a wise idea to publish speculation, rather items need to be based on fact.

A counter argument is that there was plenty of information out there. People had to look for it, and not just look at a highly flawed ranking system which at one stage gave Bridgecorp an AAA. Indeed it has been scarey to see people have made investment decision based on this system. Again there is comment on this in our readers' response section.

Taking the bigger picture view of finance companies there is clearly a lot of comment about what the failure will mean for the sector. If last year, and the Provincial collapse, is anything to go by then there will be a slowdown of funds flow and when investors return again there will be a flight to quality.

Sticking with finance companies and deposit taking institutions there is a round up of other news at depositrates.co.nz.

Also RaboPlus has responded to the Blog Pricing risk or buying market share

Across on the home loan front there has been some good news with banks easing some fixed rates. However, as we point out in our review of the market, this is just temporary relief rather than the start of the great easing cycle.

Next week ASSET Magazine will hit the desks of advisers. This issue has an in-depth interview with the Minister of Commerce, Lianne Dalziel, about changes to the advisory industry. It is a must read piece and a great follow up to the news stories we have already run.

It seems to be a busy time with new appointments. In the People section we have a major new appointment at Liontamer, a new chairman for Goldridge and a "retention" manager at AIA.

Also we have plenty more coming up over the next week. So if you want to find out what is happening in this industry of ours check out the People section.

KiwiSaver continues to be in the news, understandably as this is its first week running. I applaud comments by Investment Savings and Insurance Association ceo Vance Arkinstall about some of the media commentary on the scheme.

Some of the stuff I have seen, such as a piece on Close Up trying to link KiwiSaver to Bridgecorp is poor journalism and does nothing to inform the public. This is just one example, but there are plenty more of them.