A review of things you need to know before you go home Friday; new rates added; FMA FSPR report; new bond issue; Rio Tinto share buybacks; new sanctions on North Korea; local rates and NZD lower

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
NZ Firefighters Credit Union mortgage rates have been added.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZ Firefighters Credit Union term deposit rates have been added.

FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS REGISTER
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released a report that provides details on its work to prevent misuse of the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) between 2014 and 2017. The report says that the FMA is targeting directors that encourage or facilitate abuse of the FSPR. The FMA will use its full range of tools, which include administrative orders and warnings to criminal charges, against directors of firms that register under false pretences or breach regulations. The report says that 115 registrations on the FSPR have been reviewed, resulting in 69 firms being deregistered and 21 choosing to deregister voluntarily. Of 93 applications for registration over the reported period, just 19 were allowed to proceed. The legal action brought by companies challenging deregistration from the FSPR clearly shows the value businesses place on registration, in terms of giving them credibility in the eyes of investors.

NEW BOND ISSUE
Heartland Bank's new unsecured, unsubordinated, medium term, fixed rate notes issue of $150 mln has been listed on the NZX. The notes pay a semi-annual coupon on 4.50%, 1.88% over the five year swap. The issue is set to mature on 21 September 2022. The minimum holding for the bond is $5,000 and rises from thereon are in $1,000 lots.

RIO TINTO INCREASES SHARE BUYBACKS
Rio Tinto has said that it will buy back $2.5 bln worth of shares using funds from a sale of coal assets earlier than was expected. This would raise the world's number two miner's buybacks to $4 bln for this year, following announcements in February and August, as miners benefit from recovering prices and costs reduced by years of cutbacks.

NEW SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA
US President Donald Trump has ordered new sanctions on individuals, companies and banks doing business with North Korea, which includes effectively cutting off from the US financial system any individual or entity that does business with North Korea, including foreign banks. This comes after China ordered its banks to stop dealing with Kim Jong Un's regime under the UN security council resolution. China is North Korea's largest trading partner and its main ally. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the expanded sanctions won't necessarily change Kim Jong Un's attitude but will slow down the weapons programs.

GET READY ...
We'll be shutting off comments from midnight tonight (Friday) until 7pm Saturday evening. Then we'll be live blogging the election results with commenting up and running again. The interest.co.nz team, led by Alex Tarrant, will cover everything you need to know as the results come in progressively over the evening. Bring popcorn. And don't forget to vote. Our policy comparison summaries are proving a very big hit this election.

WHOLESALE RATES LOWER
Local swap rates were lower and flatter with the 2 yr, 5 yr and 10 yr rates down -2 bps, -4 bps and -4 bps respectively. The 90 day bank bill rate is up +1 bps to 1.95%.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
The NZD has extended overnight moves and is lower against the USD, now trading under the 73 USc mark. On the cross rates we are at 92.0 AUc and at 61.0 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now at 75.0. The bitcoin price has slipped today, now at US$3,662.

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