90 seconds at 9am: NZ bank profits slump; Toyota crisis deepens; Dow falls

Watch on our video page here. Watch on YouTube here. Bernard Hickey delivers the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9am in association with BNZ, including news PriceWaterhouseCoopers has released a report on New Zealand bank results for 2009 showing the major banks made a combined loss of NZ$1.4 billion in the second half of 2009 as bad debts tripled and they lost their tax cases with the IRD. Interest rate margins also contracted by more than 20 basis points while margins for the Australian owned banks in Australia rose 15 basis points as New Zealand banks were forced to lift term deposit rates well above the Official Cash Rate to meet new liquidity requirements from the Reserve Bank. However, our banks remain strongly capitalised thanks to injections from their Australian parents. Meanwhile the crisis around Toyota in the United States has worsened after the US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood briefly told drivers to stop driving Toyotas. He retracted that comment, but concerns are growing about faulty accelerator cables and whether the problem is faulty parts or faulty Toyota electronics. Toyota has now recalled 7.6 million Toyotas and the CEO Akio Toyoda has yet to appear or apologise publicly. Meanwhile the Dow fell after poor results from Pfizer and Ryder, while copper, lead and zinc prices fell on worries about a slow global recovery in demand for metals. In New Zealand today Statistics NZ is expected to report employment fell slight in the December quarter and the unemployment rate rose to 6.8% from 6.5%.