Friday 13th June
Shake, rattle and roll

Hi

Behind all the headlines and corporate facades there is big change going on in the financial services market at the moment. That change is all about people moving to new jobs. We have a steady stream of changes to record and the most prominent is a shake out of the general managers at AMP.

It seems that under its new leadership AMP is making significant personnel changes and a number of its staff are, we understand, headed for TOWER.
Our piece on these changes is here. Other appointments are recorded on our People Page.

Another area of change is with risk products. In the insurance market it has been a week of launches. First up was news of TOWER Health and Life’s new premiums and also this week we had ING with a product launch. We cover THL’s release and have a new article with a table comparing its premiums.
Other insurance news this week includes the loss of a long-time risk adviser and the latest in our practice management series.

Diversified Investment Strategies has built a commendable history by offering superior investment portfolios. Now Diversified offer these strategies within a PIE fund - Diversified Wealth management Balanced Fund. Please contact nstacey@diversified.co.nz or phone 0800 55 88 11 for an Investment Statement

Sticking with the change theme, it was useful to attend the Newpark conference in Auckland on Monday to get a feel for the issues and sentiment in the market. Tax and regulation continue to be big themes, attracting a lot of comment and discussion. One point I picked up on is that the government has announced a U-turn on adviser regulation and is, apparently, consulting with the market. Comments from industry leaders suggest the level of consultation is non-existent. We have mentioned this to the minister’s office and will wait and see what comes of it. In the meantime I suggest you read the blog.

Industry needs to be ready for a stall – or a rush This week we have a guest Blogger. Good Returns’ journalist in Parliament’s Press Gallery, Rob Hosking, looks at what chance the adviser regulation changes have of getting passed into law before the election. [more]

Over the past week there have been some major changes in fixed mortgage rates from the main banks and non-bank lenders.

ANZ and National banks have chopped 40 points off their one-year rates, 25 points from their three, four and five-year rates, and their six-month and two-year rates were also cut by 20 points each. Kiwibank reduced its three-year rate by 30 points and its four and five-year rates by 20 bps. Non-bank lenders have reduced rates too. You can see all the changes over the past week here.

Our weekly Home Loan report details what is happening in the market and how rates are coming down. Another story, Big rate falls forecast, details what economists predict will happen to rates over the next couple of years.

The state of the housing market is a source of constant news at the moment. We have full coverage of this week's announcements on www.landlords.co.nz and also some comment suggesting the market may not be as bad as many suggest.

Helping support this view is our story about Mortgage Express, the mortgage broking chain that is part of the Harcourts real estate group, saying it has a record number of pre-approved loans on its books.