What happened Friday

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; more mortgage 'specials', better Crown a/cs, record NZSF month, backup Kiwibank HQ, swap rates rise

20th Feb 15, 4:00pm by David Chaston

For Friday, February 20, 2015. <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

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

It's a bit abbreviated today because I am watching the cricket ;) Please add anything I missed in the comment stream below.

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
TSB Bank led today with rate reductions for two of its 'specials', cutting rates for 2 and three years. They also added a 5 year 'special'. ICBC adjusted its floating rate down to 6.39% which is the lowest floating rate for any New Zealand bank.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Today, Westpac cut its Online Saver, its Business Saver and its Online Saver PIE by -10 bps to 3.15%.

SURPLUS MORE LIKELY
The Crown accounts for the half year to December were out today. Treasury reported the budget deficit as NZ$1.0 bln which was NZ$381 mln better than forecast. Higher GST and corporate tax receipts was behind the improvement. Finance Minister English said he is hopeful of a surplus for the full year.

AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS ...
The Cullen Fund reported its January result today, with a +1.17% return in the month worth $240 mln (and after its recent black eye). This is a record high for a month end return. The Fund is now worth $27.8 bln.

AN UNUSUAL BLIP UP
It is only one week but the number surprised us; there were 72 bankruptcies reported for last week, the highest single weekly count since September 2011. This data has been very low for a long time now.

SOMETHING LONG OVERDUE FOR AUCKLAND
Construction started today to extend the motorway to Auckland Airport, getting rid of those last few "expressway" kms of traffic lights and roundabouts. About time.

KIWIBANK OPENS HASTINGS BACK-UP HQ
PM John Key today opened Kiwibank's Hastings office, which the state owned bank has established to ensure business continuity if there's a disaster or emergency in Wellington or Auckland. The office will have about 100 staff undertaking core banking functions.

WHOLESALE RATES RISE
Our swap rates resumed their upward direction today with New York benchmark rates having put the FOMC minutes behind them. Our swap rates are up today between +2 and +5 bps across the curve in a steepening bias. The 90 day bank bill rate fell -1 bp to 3.63%.

NZ DOLLAR CONSOLIDATING
Check our real-time charts here. There was marginal softness in our exchange rates today. We are now at 75.3 USc, at 96.5 AUc , and the TWI is at 78.5.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.

Daily exchange rates

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Source: RBNZ

Source: CoinDesk

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6 Comments

by MortgageBelt | 20th Feb 15, 5:29pm 1424406598

And Greece has the upper hand over the hapless EU.

by Stephen L | 20th Feb 15, 8:48pm 1424418533

We won the cricket well is I'm guessing for most, the main thing that happened today. And somewhere in Queensland got 600mls of rain today, at least according to Shane Warne.

So thoughts with England cricket fans, and with Queenslanders probably copng with things, but here we have smiles on our faces.

by JimboJones | 21st Feb 15, 11:37am 1424471849

David do you really think spending 140 mil to get rid of one set of traffic lights is a good use of money? Hey why not spend a few trillion and get rid of all of Auckland traffic lights?

by David Chaston | 21st Feb 15, 11:44am 1424472240

It was more the deaths and especially injuries I was thinking about ...

And yes, there are a number of other projects that need to get prioritised - especially level crossings which are archaic these days.

Have a look at this chart - I believe a key reason it trends down so relentlessly over the past 15 years is because of the 'investment' society has made in a better roading network. That's literally hundreds of lives and hundreds of thousands of injuries. On this basis alone "it's worth it".

by JimboJones | 21st Feb 15, 2:10pm 1424481000

But 140 million could probably fix hundreds of dangerous non motorway intersections saving many more lives. Or go towards rail to the airport. It's just spending for the sake of it.

by Andrewj | 21st Feb 15, 2:33pm 1424482407

I've had friends survive accidents because of ABS, traction control, air bags and side impact bars. I crashed my mountain bike and broke a few bones in my chest. The doctor told me that once he did a lot of work on chest injuries from car crashes but with air bags never.

My father was hit in his new little Ford Focus by a Hilux, hit him right side front ,lost the front wheel and both 80 year olds walked away unhurt, apart from being offended by the police wanting blood tests for alcohol as were getting checked in hospital.

When I travel home, I thinlk we drive fast and are not as courteous as others.