A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; tax revenues boom, Auckland HLA 'credit negative', commercial property lending risks, wholesale trade up, another irrigation scheme gets funds

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
AMP Home Loans and NZ Home Loans both increased rates today including the floating rate. Both are white labels of Kiwibank who made similar moves yesterday.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report today.

MONEY POURING IN
Higher than expected tax revenue and lower than forecast core expenses pushed the Government's 7-month surplus to $1.145 bln, well above expectations. There will be a lot more in the kitty come Budget 2017 time on May 25.

AUCKLAND'S POOR HLA HURTS BOND INVESTORS
Moody's says that the poor state of housing affordability in Auckland - despite a recent improvement driven by rising incomes and low interest rates - is credit negative for New Zealand covered bonds.

ARDERN CLIMBS TO #2
It is now official; Jacinda Ardern is the new deputy leader of the Labour Party. (Andrew Little said there is no vacancy for the leaders position ;)

THE NEXT RISK AREA
The Australian bank regulator is concerned about bank lending standards for commercial property. Commercial property lending has historically been a source of significant loss for banks, they claim. APRA’s review revealed that the ability of the Board and senior management to fully understand and challenge the risk profile of lending has often been hampered by inadequate data, poor monitoring and incomplete portfolio controls. APRA wants banks to improve their capabilities in this area, and has written to banks with specific requirements in these areas.

A HEALTHY SECTOR
Rising fruit exports in the December 2016 quarter saw wholesale trade sales rise for the third quarter in a row. The actual value of wholesale trade sales was $25.9 billion in the latest quarter, almost $1 bln up or +3.8% from the same quarter a year ago. This is a good result, made even better because wholesale inventories rose only marginally.

ANOTHER IRRIGATION SCHEME GETS FUNDS
Another farmer-led irrigation project is to get $1.4 mln in Crown support. South Canterbury's Hunter Downs Water will get the money to complete the next stage of its work program as it works towards becoming construction ready. The next stage is to build a canal this winter, and be due to open in the spring of 2019. The scheme is dependent on the supply of alpine water from the Waitaki River.

AUSSIE PERSONAL LOAN CO SLAPPED HERE OVER UNREASONABLE FEES
The Commerce Commission has forced internet-based lender Rapid Loans to refund borrowers about $1.4 mln following an investigation into unreasonable fees. The Commission’s investigation found Rapid Loans had charged unreasonable establishment, monthly administration or default fees on more than 6,000 loans during the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2015. Rapid Loans revised its fees after this period. Rapid Loans NZ Limited is an internet-based lender that commenced business in New Zealand in May 2012, providing unsecured loans of up to $10,000. The company is a sister company to Rapid Loans Pty Limited that lends in Australia. Both companies operate together from the Gold Coast.

THAT TIME AGAIN
It is the first Tuesday of the month, so that means the RBA will be reviewing its benchmark rate at 4:30pm. We will add a link to the decision here when it is released. Markets don't expect any change.

INVESTOR DEMAND TESTS LIMITS
The giant CBA bank has told parliamentarians that demand from investors for loans in Australia is strong and that they are nearing their regulated 10% limit.

WHOLESALE RATES STABLE
All very quiet in these interest rate markets locally. The only hint of any change is +1 bps for seven and ten year terms. The 90 day bank bill rate his unchanged at 1.99%.

NZ DOLLAR ALSO STABLE
The NZD has held its morning rate and is still just under 70 USc. On the cross rates we are at 92.1 AUc, and at 66.1 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is now at 75.6. Check our real-time charts here or see below.

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