[Weekly Wrap] Now for some FAB fun

Well she did it. Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel has got her Financial Advisers Bill through Parliament.

Friday, September 26th 2008, 4:33PM

As she has said before, the act - as it is now, sets a framework for regulation of the advisory industry. Now the fun and games begin as the rules are sorted out. Taking the lead here will be the Securities Commission. Until this week it had no mandate to do anything. I suspect that it will start moving quite quickly. As we have reported previously (and exclusively on Good Returns) the commission has already appointed a couple of people to do this work.

The news that the FAB bill has made it through Parliament prompted some thoughts on the election. While it may seem odd to many in the savings industry, they should have many things to thank the Labour-led government for.

Many of you will be surprised (or have some other emotion) that the Financial Advisers Bill has been passed before the election. Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel made it clear that it was her intention and many doubted her. Read more in my blog.

The other big news this week has been around the AIG near-collapse. Thanks to the Federal Reserve the US company has been bailed out - although AIG Life's New Zealand chief executive David Pierce says here it is not a bail out.

This story in our Insurance News section also has other details about AIG in New Zealand. Our other piece in the section is Russell Hutchinson's latest column, As old as the hills.

Other news this week included further finance company developments with moves to replace three of the board members at newly-listed Geneva Finance. Also Strategic Finance got a slap over the wrist for disclosure.

This is interesting as Strategic talked to some players about its plans, then one, rather high-profile character blabbed the details in a reasonably public way.

Also making news this week was Kiwibank's move to cut its two-year fixed rates. It has all the signs of wanting to take over BNZ's role as the protagonist in home loan rate wars. But as we report in the Mortgage Centre it doesn't expect much resistance from the big banks this time around.

To keep up to date on rate changes use Good Returns comprehensive rates table here.

The other development, in this ever changing area, is that many non-bank lenders have withdrawn fixed rates of terms longer than 12 months. Maria Scott looks at these developments here, plus predictions that home loan rates will stop falling and actually increase.

The People section has been a little quiet this week since we reported that AMP Capital was losing Leo Krippener. However AXA have appointed a new business development manager and we have a couple of other appointments coming up next week.

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Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns »

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