A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; UDC rate change, real estate agent commission update, improvements to Key Bank Metrics tool, swaps up, NZD firms

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes to report.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
We had missed a rate cut across the board from UDC earlier last week. It involves small reductions for terms 4 moths through 5 years, involving either a -5 or -10 bps cut.

UPDATE
We have updated our Key Bank Metrics tool to add an explainer to each of the categories. These are the official RBNZ definitions, the ones used in their Dashboard tool. We will be converting some of the more technical ones to plainer language over the next few weeks. These improvements come after our addition of tax, leverage and management details.

RBNZ APPROVES INSURANCE DEAL
Provident Insurance CEO Steve Owens says the Reserve Bank has advised that it approves the transfer from Co-op Money of the non-life insurance business from Co-op Insurance, the trading name of Credit Union Insurance Ltd, to Provident. Owens says details of the deal and its price are commercially sensitive. Approval of the sale will be welcomed by Co-op Money, the industry association for the sector, and its members.

SEVEN PERCENT MORE
The real estate industry is estimated to have earned just over $400 mln in residential sales commissions in the second quarter of this year as sales volumes bounced off their lows.

WINNERS & LOSERS
The NZX and ASX are both sharply lower today, each down about -0.8%. That is in contracts with Hong Kong and Shanghai which are both pretty much unchanged. Tokyo however down a whopping -1.2%.

AGEING UPDATE
All countries are aging. But in some the trend will be faster than others. And China is in that fast group. Currently China's over 60s account for just 17% of a 1.4 bln population. That's 240 mln older folks. In one generation (30 years) that number will grow to almost 500 mln people over 60, a doubling, while its population will only grow in those 30 years by +70 mln (not a typo). For comparison, New Zealand's over 60s now account for 21% of our population. In the US they account for 22%. In neither of these two countries will the over 60s grow as fast proportionately. China may also have special twist to deal with given the preference for boys.

COAL LOSES AN ADVANTAGE
In 'Stralia there is a reservoir of affection for coal as the backbone of their electricity generation and for industrial use. Thermal coal still ticks the boxes of policy makers for 'base load'. But the businessman who bought the bankrupt Whyalla steelworks has told then that coal is no longer the low cost alternative, that renewables are now the preferred low cost option and the advantage is likely to grow as quickly as it came upon his commercial decision. If true, that will be an earthquake in Australian policy making around energy.

SWAP RATES TURN UP
Local swap rates are rising today. The two year is up +1 bps, the five year up +2 bps, and the ten year is up +3 bps. However, the UST 10yr is down to 2.89%, a -1 bps slip but essentially holding Wall Street's Friday climb. The Aussie Govt 10yr is at 2.67, up +4 bps, the China Govt 10yr is at 3.51% also up +4 bps, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is at 2.89%, up +6 bps and recovering all it lost on Friday. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.92%.

BITCOIN HOLDS
The bitcoin price is now at US$7,623 and iup strongly from this morning even though seven hours ago there was a sharp bump down in these markets.

NZD FIRMER
The NZD is up to 68.2 USc. And it is holding on the cross rates at 91.8 AUc, and ate euro at 58.2 euro cents. That puts the TWI-5 slightly lower at 71.4.

This chart is animated here. For previous users, the animation process has been updated and works better now.