Weekly Wrap: Not a bad week!

ING still seems to be dominating the news at the moment. This week we learnt a bit more about how ANZ advisers had sold the CDO funds, heard from the head of ING about the status of the company's joint venture with ANZ and also there was some good news from two unitholder meetings yesterday.

Friday, March 13th 2009, 4:30PM

As Good Returns reported yesterday, the Banking Ombudsman has been busy investigating complaints about how ANZ advisers had sold the Diversified Yield Fund and Regular Income Fund. In some cases the sales process was found wanting. One thing that is important to understand about this story is that it relates to ANZ advisers, not independent financial advisers.

There has been some speculation (and gossip around the traps) about the state and future of the ING/ANZ joint venture. This week ING Asia-Pacific boss Paul Bedbrook put those rumours to rest.

Yesterday ING held unitholder meetings for its Credit Opportunities (COF) and Enhanced Yield Funds (EYF) funds. As we report in News Round Up the resolutions to wind up the funds were passed easily.

Yes there was some other news this week. On the market front we have AXA Global Investors view on the state of the international markets and where it sees opportunities.

Also we have a bit of an update on what is happening with adviser regulation, and some thoughts on where the bar will be set in terms of measuring the competency of advisers.

Clearly the big local market news of the week has been yesterday's official cash rate announcement where the Reserve Bank cut another 50 points off the benchmark rate. As we report in the Mortgage Centre banks have made some cuts to their home loan rates, but they haven't been as aggressive as previously, nor have they been across the board. Indeed it was only floating rates that benefited from the announcement.

In the Mortgage Centre we have a good reaction piece to yesterday's announcement and also report on ANZ's position in the market.

Our People Section reports on Donal Curtin's decision to step down as deputy chair of the Commerce Commission and five adviser appointments at Kiwibank (interestingly enough quite a few are ex-Westpac people - funny that).

The Curtin story deserves some comment. No one knows why Donal stepped down (but remains a commission member), some have speculated and others have gloated. I feel for Donal as the enquiry into his appointment has taken far too long and he hasn't been able to defend himself in public. As many in the industry know, Donal has done a lot of good things for the financial services industry and is a respected economist.

In Insurance News we have the ISI arguing that tax changes to life insurance policies, which will increase premiums, should be pushed out to start in 2011. Also Sovereign has announced a policy which allows customers to put their term life on hold for a month if they are made redundant.

Have a great weekend.
Philip

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