Weekly Wrap:

Weekly Wrap: The big news this week was the resignation of Tower Investments ceo Tony Hildyard.

Saturday, November 10th 2007, 10:26AM

This is the second major change in the firm's investment team this year, the other being the departure of New Zealand equities man Wayne Stetchman.

Tower has been quite remarkable in that its investment team has been together for a lengthy period of time. Often, I notice, is that when one person leaves a team others follow. What will be fascinating to watch is who takes over running the investment business.

A story, which is quite exciting, is the announcement that personal financial management will be included in the school curriculum. It is something I have been keen to see for years. My view is that teaching people about money and how to handle it is a vital life skill, more vital than some of the other stuff taught these days.

The headline act of the week though was the Geneva Finance moratorium vote. As readers will know debenture holders overwhelming supported to defer repayments for six and a half months. What has not yet been revealed - until now - is the size of the vote in favour of the moratorium.

Besides our report on the site financial adviser Murray Weatherston, who attended the meeting, has provided some meaningful comments on the meeting in Phil's Blog. I recommend you read his comments.

This week we have seen the final payment to Western Bay finance debenture holders made, and news that the Five Star Consumer book is not in particularly flash shape.

We also have our regular report on investment rate changes. This report shows some significant increases continue to be made by finance companies and banks battle it out in the one-year space. Next week we will have plenty of other news about the state of the finance company sector and a new report on the sector's health.

The home loan space continues to be busy with huge increases in fixed rates across the board during the week. Banks have been hiking rates by, in some cases 30 basis points as wholesale rates have increased. While rates are high (some over the 10% mark) the gross margins lenders are making remain slim.

By the end of the week wholesale rates had eased back a little which may provide some respite for borrowers - albeit not much.

During the week we also had the latest insurance stats out from the ISI. While things are tough in the investment space at the moment, risk seems to be holding up OK.

There have been a number of new appointments during the week including changes at Arcus and Brook. On Monday Good Returns will have news of a new chief executive at one of the insurance companies.

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Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns »

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