A review of things you need to know before you go home on Thursday: ASB cuts mortgage rates, Orr's presentation shines, more tourists use more rooms, ANZ kowtows, China inflation slips, swap rates drop, NZD falls

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ASB reduced their two and three year carded fixed home loan rates. Their new three year rate is market-leading.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
No changes to report here.

FRESH & CLEAR, BUT FINANCIAL MARKETS FALL
The public performance by the new Reserve Bank governor won praise today from a wide range of analysts. He announced no rate change, or even the prospect of one, but did articulate the central banks policies in a fresh, clear and unambiguous way. However, the currency was marked down, as were our wholesale swap rates. Equity markets rose however, but that was more in line with Wall Street and other Asian markets.

MORE TOURISTS, HIGHER OCCUPANCY
March tourist accommodation was quite buoyant. An early Easter helped and it drew more domestic travelers to campgrounds that is usual.Overall, March guest nights were up more than +8% compared with the same month last year. In the South Island, the increase was +11%. Overall occupancy rates continue to drift higher. Hotel occupancy rated average just under 80% in March, similar to last year. Motel occupancy rates are higher. But backpacker lodges are one group that seems to be faltering.

"WE ARE GOOD GUYS"
Banks are working harder to impress the Government. Today, ANZ announced a new program of $100 mln in interest-free loans to help people with existing mortgages insulate their homes. They can get up to $5,000 interest free and will have five years to pay that off. The announcement was made in front of the Prime Minister.

LOWER THAN EXPECTED
In China, they are reporting CPI inflation in April that is lower than expected. It came in at +1.8%, rather than the expected +1.9% and the March +2.1%. (Going the other way, China's producer prices are rising again, and were up +3.4% in the year to April. This is the first y-on-y rise in seven months.)

TWO PLEAD GUILTY IN PONZI CASE
The SFO, triggered by the FMA, has won guilty pleas in a Christchurch case involving a sophisticated Ponzi scheme masked as a foreign exchange brokerage. Jimmie Kevin McNicholl, the director of Arena Capital Limited which traded as BlackfortFX, pleaded guilty to obtaining the registration as a financial services provider by deception. Arena Capital used the illegally obtained financial services provider registration to give the impression that BlackfortFX was a legitimate forex trading platform but no trading was ever undertaken. About 900 people invested approximately $8.3 mln into what was in fact Ponzi scheme. Lance Jack Ryan, also known as Lance Jared Thompson, has also pleaded guilty to a range of other charges in this case, but innocent to one further charge.

AUSSIES PUSH GO BUTTON ON OPEN BANKING
Aussie Treasurer Scott Morrison says open banking will be phased in from July 2019, with the big four banks to initially make data available on credit and debit card, deposit and transaction accounts, and mortgages by 1 February 2020. Data on all products recommended by the Government's review will be available by 1 July 2020. All remaining banks will be required to implement open banking 12-months after the major banks. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be responsible for promoting competition and customer-focused outcomes, while the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is to ensure privacy protection is a fundamental feature of the system, Morrison says.

TAX DRIVES INVESTMENT CHOICES
In Australia, 30% of older Australians retired with a second property under their belt by 2014, growing from 25% in 2002, according to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute’s latest report. The tax advantage residential property has was the prime driver of this rise.

BENCHMARK INTEREST RATES DIVERGE
Local swap rates fell sharply and flattened following the RBNZ MPS today. The 2 year is down -5 bps, the five year is down -4 bps bps, and the ten year is down -3 bps. The UST 10yr yield is up +2 bps at 2.99% although most of that happened last night. The Aussie Govt 10 yr is now at 2.78% (up +3 bps). The China 10 yr is at 3.72%, up +6 bps. The NZ Govt 10 yr is up +2 bps at 2.80%. The 90 day bank bill rate is up to 2.06%, its highest since November 2016.

BITCOIN DOWNUP
The bitcoin price is now at US$9,310 which is down -1.4% today.

NZ DOLLAR LOWER
The NZD is almost -½c lower again than this time yesterday, now at 69.3 US. Over the past four weeks, that is a -6% drop. We are also sharply lower against the Aussie at 92.7 AUc, and also down at 58.4 euro cents. That has the TWI-5 down at 72, the lowest this has been in five months.

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