Both Moody's and Standard & Poor's credit rating agencies have affirmed that they will not be changing their outlook on the New Zealand banks involved with tax payback cases. Following a High Court decision in which BNZ bank was found liable to pay $416 million in unpaid taxes and a possible $238 million in use of money interest, thoughts have been centered around how this would affect the banking institution. ANZ bank, Westpac and the owner of ASB, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia ... Read More

The High Court has ruled that the BNZ bank must pay the Inland Revenue Department $416 million dollars back in taxes. It was ruled by Justice Wild, from the High Court, that BNZ bank would have to repay any taxation benefits that they garnered from their involvement in “structured financing”. It was decided, in a 179 page verdict, that the structured financing was created solely for taxation benefit purposes and thus was regarded as tax evasion. The “structured financing” set-up involved BNZ making ... Read More

Several prominent New Zealand banks have cut their home loan rates in anticipation of a January 29 Official Cash Rate (OCR) cut. ANZ National Bank, BNZ and Kiwibank have all cut their home loan rates on the 14th and 15th of January, other banks are expected to follow. It is expected by many that the New Zealand reserve bank will cut the OCR by another percentage point in its next meeting. The current rate is 5%. Westpac bank went so far this week ... Read More

New Zealand banks are so sure of a December 4th OCR cut that they are preemptively slashing their own mortgage rates. In expectation of an Official Cash Rate (OCR) cut on the 4th of December, interest rates are already being adjusted to by banks, analysts predict that this will be especially prominent on the 6 month rates. Leading the pack in rate cuts amongst New Zealand banks is BNZ, who on the 24th of November reduced their 6 month mortgage rate to ... Read More