A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; ANZ raises rates, yield on NZGB tender jumps, S&P grumpy, investors leave mortgage market, swaps rates surge, NZD slips

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ANZ has raised fixed mortgage rates for 2 years and longer. The changes push it away from competitive offers for most of these terms. However its unchanged one year rate is still very competitive.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ANZ has changed term deposit rates, lowering selected short term ones, and raising all its offers for 18 months and longer. The result of these changes doesn't make it especially competitive however.

YIELD IN DEMAND
Today's Government bond tender reveals a sharp rise in yields demanded by investors. The previous tender had an average yield of 2.98% whereas today, just 4 weeks later that same average is 3.55%. (In July it bottomed at 2.56%, so that is a +100 bps rise in just 20 weeks.) This tender received bids for NZ$496 mln for the $150 mln offered. Even that heavy demand isn't holding back the drive for higher yield.

GRUMPY RATINGS AGENCY
Risks to global banking sector credit quality remain significant for 2017, according to a report published today by S&P Global Ratings. The report highlights protracted global economic recovery, heightened political uncertainty, low interest rates, and the still-evolving regulatory landscape as key risk factors weighing on the operating environment for banks globally. In the Asia Pacific region S&P said it believed negative rating trends will persist in 2017 "driven mainly by negative economic trends in some key banking sectors--including China, India, Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong--our negative outlook for the corporate sector, and negative outlooks on some key sovereigns".

FAST CHANGE
Bank mortgage policy changes are moving the needle. In just four months, the amount of interest-only lending has sunk from about 40% of all lending to now just 35%, according the RBNZ data out today.

INVESTOR DEMAND WITHERS
The proportion of mortgage lending in investors on October was 27.1%. This is the lowest level since this RBNZ C31 series was started in August 2014.

PAY EQUITY
The Government confirmed today it will update the Equal Pay Act and amend the Employment Relations Act to implement recommendations of the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity. This will make it easier for women to file pay equity claims with employers, rather than having to go through the courts. It will also assist employers in addressing those claims.

BIG BANKS IN PARLIAMENTARY CROSSHAIRS
The first of the Australian Parliamentary investigations into into the Aussie bank oligopoly was released today. You can read it it here.

WHOLESALE RATES RISE, STEEPEN AGAIN
Wholesale rates are a significantly higher today. The two year rate is up another +2 bps, the five year is up another +4 bps and the ten year is up another +6 bps in local markets and now at 3.33% and that is its highest level since February. The 2-10 curve is now at its steepest since March 2014. The 90-day bank bill is unchanged at 2.03%.

NZ DOLLAR SLIPS
The Kiwi dollar is lower again today than this time yesterday and is now under 70 USc for the first time since late July at 69.9 USc. On the cross rates it is trading at a high 95.3 AUc, and is at 66.6 euro cents. That has taken the TWI-5 up to just under 76.4. Check our real-time charts here.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.