[Weekly Wrap] ING coughs up $400 million

This week one industry problem pretty much came to an end, while another possibly got a new lease of life.

Friday, August 21st 2009, 4:27PM

Yesterday Good Returns reported that ING had paid nearly $400 million to investors in its Diversified Yield and Regular Income Funds - bringing some closure to what has been an intensely emotional issue. Whether there is more to go on it or not is something which rests with the Commerce Commission and its investigation into how the funds were sold.

Meanwhile, the finance company issues got a new head of steam this week. We have had a couple of developments. One is news yesterday that Parliament's Commerce Select Committee is going to hold an enquiry into what happened. We have a story, plus the full release from the committee here along with some reaction.

In other finance company news we have a follow up to the downgrading of ratings for Marac and South Canterbury Finance. The story we ran yesterday has since been updated.

Marac have issued a new prospectus and rates which you can see here.

Finance companies generated a lot of news in Deposit Rates this week. There are two reports on TD rate changes with four banks becoming active in the longer term investments. Also Westpac is suggesting that TD rates will start coming down soon as credit markets ease up a little.

Last week Fisher & Paykel Appliances held its annual meeting and we have a report on how its finance company is tracking here.

The other area which has been very active is mortgage broking. While there haven't been too many rate changes we do have a telling graph which shows how the spread between the official cash rate and five year rates has widened significantly in the past couple of months.

Also there, we reveal the winners of the NZMBA Broker of the Year Awards, and discuss changes with one of the bigger broker groups, PLAN NZ, which is on the market.

The other big story in this space is BNZ's decision to get rid of its mobile managers.

In our insurance news this week we have an update on how AMP is tracking in New Zealand. The most interesting comments are about the level of life insurance policies being surrendered and the acknowledgement life companies are competing vigourosly to poach each other's business.

The second insurance story this week is about helping clients prepare for critical illness insurance.

To round out this week's Wrap we have a Special Report on property syndication.

Have a great weekend.
Philip

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