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High court rules Mascot Finance debenture holders to receive payments; IMP Diversified Fund investors unlikely to get all their money back; Six-month deposit rates climb 8.5%; Deposit rate war focused on long terms, Westpac special on 9-months until 9/11.

Monday, September 7th 2009, 9:36AM

High court rules Mascot Finance debenture holders to receive payments
The High Court in Christchurch has ruled debenture holders in Mascot Finance owed some $65.4 million should continue to receive interest payments past the date of its March 2 receivership.

The three options put forward to Justice Christine Fletcher were to cease interest accruing on the appointment of the receivers; interest accrues after the appointment, but only until the fixed date the principal was expressed under the certificates; interest accrues until actual and full repayment of the principal.

Justice Fletcher ruled that Mascot was liable under the terms of the stock certificate.

The case had implications for the government under the deposit guarantee scheme with most of the debenture holders likely to have applied directly to Treasury with their stock certificates.

IMP Diversified Fund investors unlikely to get all their money back
Investors in IMP Diversified Fund are unlikely to see a full repayment as the finance company in moratorium struggles to offload its assets.

Since signing a moratorium agreement in June last year, the company has paid back some 40% of the $16.5 million owed to debenture and capital note holders, but investors were told in a letter by directors Ruth Richardson and Chris Alpe a likely shortfall for debenture stockholders meant it was unlikely funds would be left over for capital stockholders once the process was complete.

The directors said they hoped to make a further repayment next month but could not offer any specifics.

Six-month deposit rates climb 8.5%
Six-month term deposit rates climbed 32 basis points to 4.1% on a weighted aggregate basis according to Reserve Bank data.

The central bank's statistics for retail interest rates on lending and deposits also found floating rate offered to new borrowers for housing fell 2 basis points to 6.42% in August from July, while the base interest rate for new overdraft loans to SMEs rose 1 basis point to 9.86%.

Deposit rate war focused on long terms, Westpac special on 9-months until 9/11
The deposit rate war continued to focus on long-term rates this week as ASB boosted three-, four- and five year terms 50 basis points while ANZ Group's UDC boosted the terms 25, 25 and 20 points respectively.

Mutual Finance cut 50 points from its nine-month rate and 150 from its 12-month term, while boosting its 18-month offerings 150 points, its two-year terms 100 points, and the three- through five-year terms 125 points.

Kiwibank continued to staked a claim in the five-month zone boosting rates 85 basis points while cutting 10 points from its 12-month term, while Craigs Investment Partners cut its three-month terms 125 points for deposits between $20,000 and $50,000 and 90 points for deposits over $50,000. Craigs cut 125 points from five-month rate for deposits under $50,000 and 100 points for deposits over $50,000. It lifted its 12-month terms 35, 25 and 20 points for deposits under $50,000, under $100,000 and over $100,000 respectively.

Westpac launched a special on its nine-month terms of 4.7% until Sept. 11. That's 120 basis points more than its current 3.5% offer, and 10 points higher than any other bank in that space.

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