
Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today (or if you work from home, before you shutdown your laptop).
MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank trimmed some home loan rates, with emphasis on the longer term durations. Biggest drop was for the three-year rate, which was cut 24 basis points to 5.35%, but still above the current market-leading 5.19% being offered by Westpac. All rates are here.
Kāinga Ora dropped its floating rate 25 bps to 6.64% and one-year rate 30 bps to 4.99%.
TERM DEPOSIT/SAVINGS RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank also gave its term deposits a trim. All updated term deposit rates less than 1 year are here, for 1-5 years, they are here.
The Police Credit Union has trimmed its six, 12,18 and 24 month rates by between five and 10bps.
CHORUS LOOKING AT $170M CAPITAL NOTES OFFER
Telecoms infrastructure company Chorus is planning an offer of up to $170 million of unsecured, subordinated, redeemable, cumulative, interest-bearing capital notes, with details to be released later this week and the offer expected to open in the week beginning May 19. Forsyth Barr Limited is Arranger and Joint Lead Manager, and Bank of New Zealand is Joint Lead Manager.
SMARTPAY SURGES ON TAKEOVER DEVELOPMENT
The share price of eftpos service provider Smartpay surged by more than 20% after it confirmed it had entered exclusive talks with an unnamed "international strategic" party proposing to take it over for $1.20 a share. Australia's Tyro Payments, which had also been undertaking due diligence on Smartpay, withdrew its interest.
SPENDING UP IN APRIL, BUT DOWN FOR EASTER
Payment provider Worldline NZ said nationwide consumer spending in April reached $3.74 billion, which is up +0.9% on April 2024, following adjustments for merchants coming and going from the network. However, spending in Easter, which fell fully in April this year compared with being across both March and April last year, was slightly down on 2024 levels.
RETAIL CRIME 'SIGNIFICANTLY UNDER REPORTED'
Retail crime rates are significantly under-reported in New Zealand, by almost 40%, a new report by industry body Retail NZ has found. For the report, Retail NZ got responses from 1500 retailers nationwide - and 99% of them experienced some form of retail crime or anti-social behaviour, totalling 140,746 incidents. Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young says the survey confirms the actual level of retail crime in New Zealand "is much higher than official statistics show".
VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS DRIFT
New vehicle registrations continued their downward drift last month; from 9223 in April last year, to 8839 in the month just gone. Motor Industry Association chief executive Aimee Wiley says April’s results continue an overall declining trend from the beginning of the year. "Registrations to the end of April totalled 41,380 vehicles – a 3.9% drop on the 43,079 registered over same period in 2024. This is likely due to continuing tight economic conditions impacting on spending behaviour." In April Toyota remained the top passenger marque with 2172 units registered for a 24.6% share of the market, but this represented a 8.6% drop on the 2378 units sold in April 2024.
SALES UP, BUT PRICES DOWN FOR AUCKLAND'S LARGEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY
Last month Barfoot & Thompson had its best April sales result since 2021, but the median selling price was the lowest for an April since 2020.
'WESTPAC COMPETING HARD TO GROW'
Westpac NZ is the smallest of the four largest banks, not satisfied with that position, and "competing hard to grow", CEO Catherine McGrath says. "That means offering points of difference, through competitive pricing and innovative products and services, while also helping drive action on issues that matter to New Zealanders like fighting fraud and scams, getting more families into their own homes and boosting financial inclusion." Westpac's net profit after tax for the six months to March 31 rose $3 million to $565 million from $562 million in the same period of its previous financial year.
TRADE TALKS WITH INDIA GETTING UNDERWAY
Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay says the first "in-person" round of negotiations towards a comprehensive India-NZ Free Trade Agreement will occur in India this week.
SWAP RATES LIKELY RISING
Wholesale swap rates will likely be up today. Keep an eye on our chart below which will record the final positions closer to 5pm. The 90 day bank bill rate was down 1 bp at 3.41%. The Australian 10 year bond yield is up 10 bps at 4.32%. The China 10 year bond rate is at 1.62%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up 5.5 bp at 4.52%. The UST 10yr yield is on 4.31%, down 1 bp.
EQUITIES MIXED
The NZX50 is up 0.3%, but the ASX200 is down a solid 1.10% in afternoon trade. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai are closed. Singapore has opened up down 0.1%.
OIL LOWER AGAIN
The oil price is down another US$2.26 at US$56.03/bbl in the US, and down US$2.22 to US$59.07/bbl for the international Brent price.
GOLD RISES
In early Asian trade, gold is continuing its recent up-and-down-up-and-down volatile pattern, for the moment rising -US$25 to US$3625/oz.
NZD FIRMS
The Kiwi dollar is up 27 bps from early Monday, now at US59.74c. Against the Aussie we are up 17 bps at AU92.41c. Against the euro we are 52.71 euro cents. This all means the TWI-5 is now at 67.00, up from 66.8 earlier in the day.
BITCOIN DOWN
The bitcoin price is at US$94,300, which is down about 1.8% in the past 24 hours.
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20 Comments
I thought Westpac were New Zealand's biggest bank by dint of their being the bank for our government departments? Or has the rest of their customers wised up and gone to another bank?
I'm involved in the banking for three small non-profit societies (okay, clubs) using BNZ, ANZ and Westpac. Westpac suck by the biggest margin. They don't even claim have an app for this sort of operation and their online banking operation looks like it created in the 1970s.
So that is something they could work on (I have other ideas but I'd be happy if they quit the market).
governments of both persuasions have had the option of moving its banking to Kiwibank but both refused to so so - - If they were really serious about creating a better more competitive Kiwibank -- this should be one of the first and easiest steps to take -- followed by a significant capital investment
The reality is -- that they CHOOSE not to do so -- and before we get into rules around tendering contracts etc - this is easily done in the nations best interest for security and infrastructure -- should be very easy to get a 2/3 majority in teh house to get this through!
Yeah, moving to Kiwibank raises its head every so often along with the aforementioned significant capital investment as the reason not to.
So much easier to send bank profits offshore.
Kiwi Bank cannot offer the range of international services that the Aussie banks can, you need Aussie and UK branches to be able to provide all the pension related payment services that are part of the gov banking package.
Realistically only WPAC, ANZ, CBA and BNZ, can, I think CBA probably doesn't want to bid but I have no inside knowledge.
Forty years ago in a new country I chose the bank my employer used because it meant being paid a day earlier than all the other banks. The NZ govt and local governments should do the same - pay into Kiwisaver accounts one day earlier or even jut the difference between 8am and 8pm on the same day. Then watch workers move their accounts.
In modern times there were 5 trading banks. In terms of NZ operation only, the largest being the BNZ, then ANZ, BNSW (now Westpac,) NBNZ & CBA. Westpac took over the CBA & then the newly licensed Trust Bank to become the largest until surpassed by the ANZ who had taken over NBNZ & Postbank.
Yes, I used to do repeated stints as Treasurer for a club that banked with Westpac. Going through the annual change of signatories for authorised people was never straightforward with Westpac. There'd be differing opinions from different staff as to how this had to be done. We never once had it done and dusted in a single visit. There certainly seemed to be some gaps in training and policy.
I know it's not April 1st...
"Donald Trump orders 100 percent tariff on non-US movies to save Hollywood from 'dying'"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/559971/donald-trump-orders-100-percent…
Have you seen the news about Trump wanting to re-open Alcatraz as a prison again... but wait, expanded (on an island of very limited space already). One of the reasons sited for closing Alcatraz prison was the cost of servicing an offshore prison was about 3 times that of a regular (non island based) prison... so Trump wants to spend a fortune on expanding and reinventing this prison, while his henchmen continue to slash and burn other services in the guise of DOGE and cost cutting.
It might not be April fools, but there's a fool that's thinking about it.
Getting his 'forever home' ready...where he belongs.
He does not need to, this is simply distraction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax_prison
ADX Florence, watch a few youtubes.... holy shit this place is next next next level secure. It is a prison, within a prison, in the middle of nowhere. IMHO This is worse then a death sentence. You will die here without ever seeing a view of the outside world ever again.
All the structures are neglected and stuffed. Way back the concrete was poured with salt contaminated sand and by the time it was closed in the 1960s riddled with the co called concrete cancer, rusting reinforcing and on. Maintaining all of the water services a total nightmare. At any one time Alcatraz never held over 300 prisoners. To demolish and rebuild, god knows how much per prisoner then?
This persistant issue of not being able to comment on articles is getting pretty rediculous now....especially when one of the advertised perks of being a supporter on this website is to have this option...
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Now that Real estate is in free fall again.... they need all the Spriukers they can get?
While you are waiting read the Brian Easton article about the US working class.
May i suggest whomever is responsible for your IT is placed on notice due to non performance
I can put together a few bids from offshore ..... and make it worse.
This guy gives good breakdowns on various aspects of global economics/debt. This one about who owns foreign debt:
https://youtu.be/Eh3iAzbLUqI?si=MF6uAHM48MhtQhzq
The TLDR is, foreign governments own very little debt of other countries, most foreign debt is privately held, with large amounts owned by pension funds.
The added joke being, the people moaning the most about government debt, are the ones who likely own it.
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