A review of things you need to know before you go home on Wednesday; NBS goes paperless, lot to like in the BOP result, lots of bond issue news, wholesale rates push on up, NZD holds high

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

THERE WERE RATE MOVES TODAY
Kiwibank raised both its floating rates mortgage rates today, and some key savings and term deposit rates. Their new 200 day term deposit rate is now market leading for a about 6 month term. Kookmin Bank also raised its mortgage rates. And Medical Securities increased its term deposit rates.

NBS GOES PAPERLESS WITH NEW APP
The Nelson Building Society is getting closer to moving the paper mountain after licensing a next generation, cloud-based mobile commerce suite of products from Auckland-based financial technology company, Finzsoft.

MORTGAGE APPROVALS STILL SINKING
The full week approval data for home loans is back to 'normal' last week in RBNZ data released today, but that actually means the steady decline over levels we had last year continues.

BALANCE OF PAYMENTS IMPRESSES
"There was a lot to like in today’s balance of payments figures for the March quarter: another record trade surplus, a rebound in overseas visitor spending, strong profits for New Zealand-based firms, and a further improvement in our overseas liability position", said Westpac.

HUGE BOND ISSUANCE COMING
Nonfinancial corporate borrowers in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America will seek up to US$21.7 trillion debt finance to support growth over the five years to 2018, of which US$6.6 trillion will be new bonds and other debt securities, according to a report published by Standard & Poor's.

DAIRY PRICES STOP FALLING
There was a small gain in dairy prices at the globaldairytrade fortnightly auction today. Importantly, wholemilk powder prices, and cheese prices both showed better gains than the overall numbers suggest.

SKELLERUP COMMITS TO CHRISTCHURCH
Skellerup today announced it will build a new $30 million world-class dairy rubberware development and manufacturing facility at the Wigram Business Park being developed by Ngāi Tahu Property. 

LGFA BONDS DRAW STRONG DEMAND
This bond tender today had more than twice the demand that was offered. Yields were higher than the last auction. For the 2023s successful bidders got 5.33%.

ANOTHER RENTENBANK KAURI
This German bank has done another NZD Kauri issue. It is a NZ$200 mln placement at 4.75% for 5 years.

WHOLESALE RATES
Wholesale swap rates resumed their upward track today, rising 2 or 3 bps across the whole curve. The 90 day bank bill rate was up as well and now at 3.58%.

OUR CURRENCY
The NZ dollar was stable again today even after the good current account result and the earlier GDT auction. The NZD is at 86.6 USc, the Aussie is now at 92.5 AUc, up on RBA comment. The TWI is now at 80.8.