A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; ASB and ANZ change rates, great journalism, Moody's revists NZ's rating, equities stronger, swap rates fall, NZD rises

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

TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ASB raised its 2 year fixed mortgage rate today by +10 bps, and cut its 3 years rate by -5 bps. This follows yesterday's +10 bps hike to their floating rate. Sovereign did the same thing.

TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ANZ raised its 9 month TD rate by +20 bps to 3.50% and the highest of any mainstream bank for that term. First Credit Union dropped its online savings account rate.

WE SCOOP THE INSURANCE JOURNALISM AWARDS
Jenée Tibshraeny has won the "ICNZ Excellence in Insurance Journalism" premier award and Diana Clement has won their Highly Commended award. This story and this one were both mentioned as key to their wins. And kudos for the ICNZ because these stories aren't flattering for some of their members. We are proud of their acheivements and delighted both were published on interest.co.nz.

WHAT IF ...
Moody's has been reviewing its New Zealand sovereign rating, which is the highest possible Aaa. The review assesses the risks and threats we face.

ODDS & SODS
Here is a run down of some interesting items you might want to review, from the future of London as a financial centre, how NZ ranks on non-GDP measures, Fonterra's 'winter shut', and the risks to our ag sector from the Brexit event.

EQUITIES HIGHER
Most stock exchanges are higher following the good gains we saw earlier on Wall Street. The only exception today is Singapore.

ODD BUT TRUE
Two Spanish council staff have been sacked for failing to turn up to work for 15 years but collecting their pay the whole time. They were outed when one was about to collect a long serve award. Both men are being defended by their union.

SWAP RATES FALL, FLATTEN
Swap rates fell today and the rate curves flattened. the 1-5 curve is now just +7 bps while th e2-10 curve is just +42 bps a new recent low. NZ swap rates are here. The 90-day bank bill rate is up again and by another +1 bp, now at 2.42%. NZGB bond yields inched higher again.

NZ DOLLAR UP
The NZD resumed it upward bias today. The NZD is at 71.4 USc, at 95.8 AUc, and 64.4 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now just over 75.1. Check our real-time charts here. The NZD is at 53.6 UK pence, its highest in more than 3 years. The peak was 56.1 UK pence in April 2013.

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