A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday; no rate changes today, high LVR loans jump, Fonterra makes attractive GMP offer, Fitch ticks Kiwibank, NZD rises

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
There were no rate changes today; all quiet on this front for a change today.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
There were none to report here either.

MORE HIGH LVR LOANS, BUT NOT FOR NEW BUILDS
Bank lending in May for high LVR mortgages jumped almost $100 mln from April to $414 mln not including exemptions. In fact, that is the highest it has been since the 'new' LVR restrictions came in in October 2013. Exempt lending (mainly for Welcome Home Loans, and for new builds) is a bit of a worry however. It is not growing at all. In May it came in at a measly $70 mln (probably only about 700 loans nationwide), and the average over the past 20 months is $63 mln.

REPEAT BUYERS ARE THE BIG BORROWERS
Another but related RBNZ data set also released today shows that half of investor lending is 70% LVR or higher. But that is similar to most recent months. Lending to investors is still only about a third of all lending. First home buyers account for only about 10% and "other owner occupiers" account for almost 60% of all new lending.

MILK GUARANTEE
Fonterra today set its June Guaranteed Milk Price at $5.25 per kgMS, the same as its new season forecast. This was tempting for many dairy farmers and was oversubscribed given the past season payout will likely come it around $4.40. They will get another opportunity for a GMP later in the year.

NOT BUYING LOCAL
Online sales jumped +11% in May, mainly on the back of an impressive +23% surge in the transactions we are doing with international sites. Local online sales only grew +3%. This was data published by BNZ and Marketview today. Bill English will be worried about the missing GST.

GETTING WHAT YOU NEED?
Massey is running an online survey trying to work out if published financial statements meeting the needs of NZ users. They are focussing on investments in equity or debt securities, but the survey is open to all NZ users of published financial statements. The research is being conducted as a short online survey here.

FITCH TICKS KIWIBANK
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Kiwibank's foreign and local currency "Long-term Issuer Default Ratings" at 'AA' and 'AA+', respectively. Their Outlook is positive.

GOVT STUMPS UP $333M FOR CYCLING
Transport Minister Simon Bridges has unveiled $333 million worth of cycleways investment he maintains will change the face of cycling in New Zealand. Bridges says the programme is designed to pull together a range of funding sources to build the best possible cycling network that benefits all New Zealanders.

WHOLESALE RATES FALL
Swap rates fell -1 or -2 bps across most terms to 5 years today. Going the other way, the 90 day bank bill rate was up another +1 bp today to 3.26%

NZ DOLLAR RISING
The NZ dollar has been rising steadily since midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday morning and now sits at 69.2 USc, 89.4 AUc, 61.7 euro cents and the TWI is now at 72.8. That puts our currency back to where it was a week ago. Check our real-time charts here.

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