90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ: Greek tensions boil; Record high Swiss franc vs Euro; NZ$ near 3 year high on TWI; NZ$ strong vs A$; OECD calls for rate hikes

Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the Greek financial crisis continues to rumble on through European Financial markets.

European Union, IMF, European Central Bank and Greek government officials all appear divided on how to deal with Greece's inability to service its massive debts. Payments must be made next month.

Talk is growing that Greece will need to restructure its government debts, which would force Greek, Greman, French, Spanish and British banks to take massive losses on their holdings of Greek bonds.

There is also speculation that Greek residents are withdrawing euros from their banks and travelling to other European countries to deposit the funds there. Customs official report detaining travellers with large bags of cash at the borders. The fear is that if Greek banks take massive losses the funds may not be available.

All this uncertainty has seen the Euro fall to a record low agains the Swiss Franc. European Central Bank board member Juergen Stark said Portugal, Ireland and Spain need to undertake 'drastic change' to get themselves out of trouble. See more here on the record Franc here at Bloomberg.

Gold prices rose as another ECB member Christian Noyer warned a Greek debt restructuring would be a 'horror story' for Europe. The ECB holds masses of Greek, Irish and Portugese bonds.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar was firm against the US dollar, the Australian dollar and the Euro overnight. It rose to near a three year high on the Trade Weighted Index.

The relative strength in the NZ dollar to almost 76 cents in recent days has followed nervousness in Australia about the exposure of their banks to turmoil on European markets and signs of a slowing domestic economy, despite its mining boom. See Terry McCrann's column here at the HeraldSun.

Also, some signs of rising inflation expectations in New Zealand has caused some to think a rate hike here might come sooner than the late 2011/early 2012 currently factored in by economists and markets.

As if to reinforce this, the OECD has called on developed countries to lift interest rates to fend off inflation. See more here at WSJ.

Finally, a big hello to Mr Singh's economics class at ACG Strathallen College at Papakura.