A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday: Change in the ANZ NZ hierarchy, Synlait CEO goes, S&P see uncertainties for local government

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There were no changes today.

NO NEW COMMUNITY COVID CASES MONDAY
The Ministry of Health reported no new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, but seven more cases in managed isolation. The total number of active cases in New Zealand currently is 100. The community case announced on Sunday night, "Case C," is a close contact and colleague of the worker at the Grand Millennium who tested positive last week. This person is now at the Auckland Jet Park with their partner. The partner of Case C returned a negative test. (Monday's full Ministry of Health statement is here).

CHANGE AFOOT AT ANZ NZ
The June departure of Craig Mulholland, ANZ NZ's managing director of wealth and private bank, will see some structural change at the country's biggest bank. ANZ says its private bank arm will report to personal banking chief Ben Kelleher, and the wealth business will be renamed funds management. ANZ is advertising for a new managing director of funds management, who will report to CEO Antonia Watson, and a new private bank managing director will report to Kelleher.

SYNLAIT MILK CEO RESIGNS
Synlait Milk Ltd says its CEO since September 2018, Leon Clement, has resigned. Clement will leave the role at the end of April. John Penno, Synlait's co-founder, former CEO, and current director, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is appointed. Synlait says a recruitment process will get underway shortly.

In late March Synlait said it had "proactively engaged" with its bankers to increase its leverage ratios on loan covenants, whilst forecasting a "broadly breakeven" July financial year after reporting a 76% plunge in half-year profit to just $6.4 million.

S&P SEES LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNCERTAINTIES
S&P Global Ratings says there's more uncertainty than usual over the extent to which NZ councils will deliver the budgets they propose over their 2021-2031 long-term plans, especially future infrastructure requirements. Most NZ local and regional governments are likely to have rising infrastructure budgets, which could erode headroom at their current rating levels, the credit rating agency says. Proposed reforms to water supply, storm water, and waste water could reshape the landscape of some councils. S&P does say, however, that local councils' credit quality remains favourable, with NZ's economy and fiscal outcomes rebounding quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic.

EQUITY MARKETS CAUTIOUS
Asian share markets began the new week cautiously. Reuters reports investors are waiting to see if US earnings can justify high equity valuations, while bond markets could be tested by what should be strong readings for US inflation and retail sales this week. In Australia the ASX 200 had fallen by as much as 0.5% with shares in iron ore miners, Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Group down. Here in New Zealand, the NZX 50 Index was down 0.69% at the time of writing.

NZ DOLLAR LITTLE CHANGED
The Kiwi dollar is little changed over the day, latterly at US70.24 cents, at AU92.39c, and at €59.08c. 

BITCOIN SLIPS
Bitcoin is down US$29.5 since this morning at US$59,807.05. 

This soil moisture chart is animated here.

The easiest place to stay up with event risk today is by following our Economic Calendar here ».