Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Reserve Bank has filed legal action against ASB Bank for breaches of the anti-money laundering rules over the past five years, and agreed on a multi-million dollar penalty.

The central bank said ASB admitted to seven breaches of the anti-money laundering and countering financing terrorism rules (AML/CFT), including not having an appropriate due diligence process for checking the background of customers, not doing the necessary checks on customers, not advising authorities about suspicious activity, and not ending business links as required.

ASB and the RBNZ agreed on a penalty of $6.7 million, although the final amount will be set by the High Court.

The RBNZ’s acting Assistant Governor of Financial Stability, Angus McGregor, said the legal action was an important reminder to industry that serious non-compliance was unacceptable.

“The AML/CFT Act has been in place for well over a decade now and the Reserve Bank expects banks to have the systems and resources in place to be fully compliant with these requirements.

“Non-compliance with account monitoring and reporting requirements denies New Zealand law enforcement and intelligence agencies access to crucial time-sensitive information that is needed to detect and deter criminal activity,” he said.

McGregor said there was no suggestion that ASB had been involved in money laundering.

ASB apologises for ‘shortcomings’

ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt said it accepted that banks had an important role in helping to detect financial crime.

“Our transaction monitoring and customer due diligence systems and processes had shortcomings, and we did not act fast enough to resolve these. We didn’t get this right and I apologise for that.”

“We cleared all backlogs of transaction monitoring alerts by February 2024. We have uplifted, and continue to uplift, our processes to improve our AML-CFT capability, including expanding our teams and investing in technology,” Shortt said.

Other financial groups to be hit for AML/CFT breaches in recent years include the Christchurch casino, Sky City Entertainment, TSB Bank, several smaller financial services firms, while Westpac has been warned.

Supervision of the AML/CFT laws is currently splintered between the RBNZ, the Financial Markets Authority, and the Department of Internal Affairs, which will become the sole supervisor next year.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Law Society is investigating how it can handle complaints faster after a spike in the past year.

The society’s annual report showed 1,366 complaints had been referred to its Standards Committee in the year to June – up 11 percent on the year before.

Most related to accusations of incompetence and negligence.

Law Society chief executive Katie Rusbatch told Midday Report the increase was partly due to more lawyers entering the profession, but people were also more aware of their rights.

“There’s a number of factors at play here and it’s difficulty to pinpoint anything exactly. Lawyers deal with contentious issues and sometimes, due to that, people can be unhappy with the outcomes,” she said.

“There has been about a 10 percent increase in lawyers in the last five years. The trends we are seeing are also consistent with trends legal regulators are seeing overseas as well.

“We’ve also done more work as well, as a Law Society, in terms of making the complaints process more accessible. Sometimes when you do see increased trends in number of complaints this also means that people have more awareness of the complaints process.”

There had been 566 complaints about negligence or incompetence, up from 511 on the year before.

That was a broad category, Rusbatch said.

“It can range really to what we would consider more minor matters – sometimes if there’s concerns about delays, issues with communication that sort of thing.

“What we we have seen that is consistent is the number of complaints where we take no further action still sits at over 80 percent year-on-year.”

The report said it took nine months to conclude complaints on average. The Law Society was working to improve that figure.

“We are doing a lot of work in this area in terms of regulatory reform,” Rusbatch said.

“There was an independent review that we commissioned that came out in 2023. Legislative reform has been recommended in this area. It’s not a current priority for the government. There are some changes tracking through parliament which will allow the Law Society to administratively triage complaints more easily.

“At the same time we’re looking at our complaint system, particularly looking at our ability to resolve complaints up front and to support better early resolution.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A much loved Porirua cafe and catering company – famous for hearty Island-inspired pies with fillings from creamed pāua to boiled brisket Povi Masima – is closing its doors at the end of the week.

On social media, Pepe’s Cafe in Porirua said rising costs and the demands of balancing hospitality industry pressures against family life were forcing its owners to step back from the business.

“We opened as a new business right as Aotearoa entered one of the toughest economic downturns in decades.

“Food costs rose and rose, and the only business solution was to increase prices. But that went against our heart. We opened to serve our people and to keep our food accessible, not exclusive.

“Maybe that makes us bad businesspeople on paper, but raising our prices beyond what our community could afford didn’t sit right with us,” the post said.

The cafe thanked families, staff, customers and local business initiatives for their support.

“To the local businesses and supporters who encouraged us, guided us, and cheered us on – thank you. A special thank you to Porirua City Council for the opportunities you opened for us, to the Pacific Business Network for your guidance and support, and to the media outlets who blessed us with features and stories that helped share our journey.

“To our family and friends: thank you for lifting us during our hardest seasons and believing in this dream from day one,” the post said.

Customers and friends flooded the post’s comments with messages of support and raves for the cafe’s distinctive food.

“Thank u for all the delicious kai you have given us. My faves will always be your creamy mushroom fries, the creamy chicken pie & of course your famous Lu’au Burger. Wishing u guys all the best for the future, ” wrote Renee Paul.

Dallas Paul included a picture of his favourite flavour the cafe’s boil up pie “I’m going to miss it, I need bereavement leave!!” he wrote.

“Another Porirua gem gone but never forgotten” said Tesa Lee.

The cafe will have its last business day on 21 December.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

• SEEK November report shows 1 pct rise job ads on October, 9 pct on year ago
• Applications per job fall 1 pct, first fall since January 2022 – slight easing of tough conditions
• Wages rise 0.8 pct in Nov. quarter, best gain in 18 months
• Reports point to slow improvement in labour market.

The labour market is showing signs of improvement going into 2026, with the first fall in job applications and improved wage increases.

The latest SEEK NZ employment and salaries reports show job ads rose 1 percent in November on the month before, the fifth consecutive monthly gain in advertisements and 9 percent more than a year ago.

SEEK country manager Rob Clark said the gains were not spectacular, but they were indicators of a better labour market next year.

“While the market remains challenging for many job seekers, the consistency of this growth suggests we’re now in a genuine recovery phase rather than simply stabilising.”

Conversely the number of applicants per job fell 1 percent, the first fall since January 2022, in nearly four years, suggesting an easing in demand and less competition for positions.

Wage growth quickens

Wages rose just under 1 percent in the three months ended November, the fastest quarterly growth in 18 months.

“A relatively broad pick up in advertised salaries across the country points to a more positive outlook for the labour market as we head into 2026,” Clark said.

“Annual average advertised salary growth has begun to accelerate, with a notable increase in the most recent quarter.”

The annual wage growth was 2.5 percent, with the strongest rate in the South Island.

The biggest annual rise of 9.7 percent was for Real Estate and Property positions, which Clark said might reflect firms hiring in anticipation of a pick up in the housing market.

Other sectors in demand were healthcare, legal staff, mining and resources, and media — all showing 4 percent or more rises in salaries.

Stats NZ data showed wages grew 2.1 percent in the year ended September.

Most jobs and best wages — go south

The SEEK surveys mirrored other economic indicators that showed the South Island leading activity and recovery.

The strongest annual job advert growth rates were in the south – Southland up 27 percent, Otago up 17 percent, and Canterbury up 16 percent, with strong growth in construction, trades, manufacturing, and transport.

Wellington and Waikato had double figure growth but Auckland continued to languish with no monthly growth and 1 percent annual growth.

Canterbury outpaced the country in annual salary growth at 3.2 percent, with the North Island outside of Auckland and Wellington at 3 percent.

“For candidates, the message is one of cautious optimism – the market is clearly improving, but that improvement is uneven across regions and sectors,” Clark said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Infrastructure Commission wants all government business cases, budget submissions and advice about infrastructure investments made public by default.

A select committee report out last week shows the Commission warned MPs transparency “really matters” for public confidence, but “has not been very good over a long time period”.

The Commission is due to hand over the first National Infrastructure Plan to ministers by the end of the year.

The plan sets out what roads, hospitals, schools, pipes, and power the country needs over the next 30 years, what’s planned for the next 10, and how to bridge the gap.

A draft released in July included four transparency recommendations:

• All Crown-funded infrastructure proposals pass through a transparent, independent readiness assessment before funding
• All business cases, Budget submissions, and advice on central government infrastructure investments are published
• Project assurance for central government agencies ensures that risks are well managed.
• Post-completion information on actual project costs, delivery dates and benefits are provided and published in a standard format, enabling comparisons to what was expected when funded

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop told RNZ transparency was important and he would consider all the Commission’s recommendations.

“We’ll be looking to be as transparent as possible within the confines of two things. One is traditional budget secrecy, and then the second is commercial confidentiality. If we’re dealing with billions of dollars of taxpayer money, people also expect the government to get good deals and to make sure that there’s commercial tension when it comes to negotiations.”

He said there was some transparency in the system already but there was always more that could be done.

“The biggest thing that I get frustrated by and I know the public gets frustrated by is cost overruns and time delays, so there’s a long history across multiple governments, frankly, of projects blowing out in cost and taking much longer than people think,” he said.

Bishop was hopeful his changes to the system, which included scaling up the Infrastructure Commission to develop the National Infrastructure Plan and the associated pipeline of projects – published quarterly – would help make more projects uncontroversial.

“It’s broken down by central and local government, the private sector is in there as well … it’s broken down by regions, broken down by amount … 80 percent I would say – probably even higher – of the projects on that list no one’s going to disagree with.

“What I’m trying to do is tilt the system towards having a debate around the stuff on the margins, rather than the bulk of the pipeline.”

Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said successive governments tended to politicise individual projects, and argued better transparency would help.

“The more we can share, the more we can have transparently available for the public and for other parties in Parliament to see and understand why decisions are made, the better.

“We’d get better value for money, we’d get faster delivery over time, and we’d see I think real discipline at sticking to that infrastructure pipeline.”

Although constraints may be valid in some cases, Leggett said those excuses should not be overused.

“Where there are commercial terms that shouldn’t be made public that’s appropriate to keep it safe but we hide behind the veil of secrecy and commerciality far too often.”

Leggett pointed to a 2023 Infometrics report estimating New Zealand could save up to $4.7b a year by reducing infrastructure uncertainty, and New Zealand’s position in the bottom 10 percent of OECD countries for getting value for money out of infrastructure funding.

He said the main reason project costs and delays tended to ‘blow out’ was because of changes made between the first business case being signed off and the final design being approved.

“And after, usually, the final design is approved there are massive changes in scope – but we never look back at that. And if you made things more transparent up front, it would be easy to see that when things are slowed or changed during the design or the building process … why costs eventually end up blowing out.

“There’d be a better discipline among the system and politicians generally at getting it right and getting value for money and not changing scope halfway through.”

Opposition parties were also on board.

“Labour has always supported more government transparency, and is open to hearing further from the commission about improving transparency in infrastructure,” Labour’s Infrastructure spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said in a written statement.

“National has announced a number of major transport projects for example without saying how it plans to fund them.”

Green Party Infrastructure spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said the party would urge the government to accept all transparency recommendations.

Like McAnulty, she criticised the government’s Roads of National Significance projects – highlighting a speech from Bishop last month that warned of “challenges” delivering the roads and hard choices ahead of how to pay for them.

The costings National previously used were criticised in the lead-up to the election.

Bishop was also unafraid of a little finger-pointing, saying the previous Labour government’s $35b to $45b proposal for a second Auckland harbour crossing had only gone through a high-level indicative business case.

“The numbers were frankly pie in the sky and it was really just an announcement dreamed up for a photo op. Now, that sounds like I’m being a bit political, but that is actually just the reality.”

He said the coalition recognised a second harbour crossing would be the biggest infrastructure project in New Zealand’s history, so had a barge in the harbour to do geotechnical work.

The government would make decisions about whether a bridge or tunnel would be best next year, and would engage with the opposition to ensure the project progressed in case of a change of government.

“We won’t be going around saying ‘Well, we’re going to do this and it’s going to cost Y because the reality is, you actually don’t know the costs of how much things actually cost until you’ve gone out and done commercial procurement and got your funding envelope sorted.”

Genter said an independent costings unit – which the Greens had previously campaigned on – could be one way to ensure all political parties were more realistic in their spending promises.

The coalition will have 180 days from when the plan is delivered to come up with a response.

Nick Leggett will be hoping the heat of an election campaign does not disrupt what seems like a rare show of political consensus on the need to fund infrastructure – and keep the public informed.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

If you are hankering after an exclusive suburb, but your budget can not quite stretch to it, you might be able to get a good deal on the area next door.

Property data firm Cotality has produced research showing the suburbs with the biggest median difference in house price from their neighbouring suburbs.

The data only covers houses, not apartments or townhouses.

It found that Mount Wellington and Remuera had the biggest difference. Remuera had a median value of $2.358 million, and Mt Wellington $1.059m – creating a difference of $1.298m in median value across the small shared border between the two.

Epsom and Three Kings were next, with a difference of $1.045m. Mt Eden and Mt Roskill followed, at $1.009m.

Ben Lomond and Sunshine Bay, Queenstown were in fourth place, with a median difference of $1 million.

St Heliers and Glen Innes, back in Auckland again, took the fifth spot with a difference of just over $970,000.

Head of research Nick Goodall said there was a known division in Auckland’s eastern bays. “If you’re in those coastal suburbs or slightly inland that’s an expected difference.

“St Heliers is going to have lots of amazing coastal properties and Glen Innes has none of them. Anywhere where a suburb is coastal and adjoining a suburb that is not will have differences.”

Goodall said he only used each suburb once. If he had counted Remuera multiple times, Remuera and Ellerslie would be the second-biggest difference, with a jump of $1.057m.

He said there would be less difference between a non-coastal part of a mostly coastal suburb and a neighbouring area.

“If you look at the inner part of St Heliers, I would say property values there are quite similar to Glen Innes. The ones on the coast will be dragging up the median value.”

Rukuhia and Temple View were another notable addition to the list, with a $913,018 difference. Although they have a shared border, they are in two different territorial authorities – Waipa and Hamilton City.

Goodall said buyers were sometimes driven by suburbs. “We talk about them as being vanity suburbs. If you live on a border of, say, Khandallah, you might say you live in Khandallah and if you’re selling you might put Khandallah on it – now the official address won’t be Khandallah but the fact it has it in the listing might attract more people than if it was the suburb next to it.

“If you’re on the border with a suburb that’s known to be more expensive and has a good reputation you take advantage of that. Some of these that are genuinely adjacent, if you’re at the border you might tell people it’s a different suburb than it actually is.”

Wellington salesperson Mike Robbers said the majority of buyers were probably not “laser focussed” on one suburb.

“Especially first-home buyers – they tend to just want a house that ticks enough boxes that’s within their price range. But perhaps 30 percent of buyers only want one or two suburbs – for example those who work at the hospital will often only consider Newtown or Mount Cook, whereas Weta staff will typically only be looking in Miramar or Seatoun. We also find a certain percentage of buyers will point blank refuse to consider certain suburbs, for various reasons.”

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said there was a combination of demand pricing, in terms of people wanting to pay more for certain areas, and the features of an area.

“Some areas have more of a focus around school zones, the likes of Epsom and Remuera I would think would be more about the school zones.

“You’ve got other areas – parts of Glen Innes for example relative to St Heliers – St Heliers has got some pretty nice, pretty big houses and a lot more character sort of stuff. Glen Innes has got a bit more building that been going on in recent times by the looks of it.

“Sometimes you’ve got straight up amenity. Who’s got really nice views, where are the views and the opportunities.”

Sometimes there could be components of what the land was being used for, he said. “The likes of Rukuhia versus Temple View, there’s various lifestyle blocks that are going to be generally more expensive. That’s near the airport… the likes of Temple View is a lot more focused on a certain specific set of houses for a faith-based community out there. It depends what you’re wanting and what you might get in that area, what services are around, how much new development might be there, how much heritage protection, what views and other amenities… that does have a pretty big influence on average prices.”

Rank City/Town – (Territorial Authority) – Suburb 1 – Suburb 2 Suburb 1 Median Value Suburb 2 Median Value Value Difference

1 Auckland Remuera Mount Wellington $2,358,265 $1,059,843 $1,298,422

2 Auckland Epsom Three Kings $2,341,523 $1,296,191 $1,045,332

3 Auckland Mount Eden Mount Roskill $2,125,543 $1,116,214 $1,009,330

4 Queenstown-Lakes District Ben Lomond Sunshine Bay $2,229,203 $1,228,633 $1,000,570

5 Auckland Saint Heliers Glen Innes $2,107,994 $1,137,795 $970,199

6 Queenstown-Lakes District Kawarau Falls Lower Shotover $2,508,607 $1,585,969 $922,637

7 Waipa District/Hamilton City Rukuhia Temple View $1,636,825 $723,808 $913,018

8 Auckland – Rodney Redvale Stillwater $1,868,508 $964,233 $904,276

9 Auckland – North Shore Takapuna Wairau Valley $1,863,290 $1,010,494 $852,796

10 Auckland Saint Marys Bay Freemans Bay $2,868,511 $2,043,429 $825,082

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Share markets have had a volatile year but are on track to end significantly stronger than they began.

While the NZX50 has lifted less than 5 percent over the past year, the S&P50 was this week up about 14 percent. The Nasdaq was up 20 percent. Some individual companies have seen significant share price growth – Nvidia is up 36 percent and Rocket Lab 150 percent.

With some warning that an AI fall could bring a share price collapse to tech stocks, that has some investors wondering whether they should sell their shares.

RNZ asked some experts, who say it depends a lot on your individual circumstances.

Mike Taylor, founder of Pie Funds, said investors should not adjust their long-term asset allocations because AI stocks had had a good year.

“However, if investors are overly exposed to AI, and volatile names, which I know a number of retail investors are, with perhaps their whole portfolio consisting of just Nvidia and RocketLab, they might want to consider taking some chips off the table, yes.

“And deploying that into parts of the market which look undervalued. It’s also worth noting the NZX is only up 3.5 percent year-to-date, and the ASX is 5 percent, meaning that local markets haven’t really participated in the AI boom, with the except of the odd holding in Australia.”

Rupert Carlyon, founder of Koura Wealth, said investors should always take a view on what fair value is. “At that level you should be selling your holding. If you don’t think there is [an] upside then you should be selling. If you think it is still cheap then you should be buying more shares.

“Secondly – you need to be conscious of how much exposure you have to a single name. If a stock does really well and all of a sudden makes up 20 percent of your portfolio it is probably prudent to sell some of it to realise the profits and rediversify your portfolio. You need to be constantly looking at your portfolio to ensure it is not too [exposed] to a single name – because if it falls you will unwind all of your gains.”

Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel, said he had seen growth in investors looking to invest in US listed shares.

“You know, it’s the big names and companies that we know that are buying ETFs from big brands like Vanguard. But there’s also the local support for the uniquely from New Zealand, the local support for Rocket Lab.

“I don’t think people are selling. And obviously, if they do, they need to be really conscious that they don’t start to trigger themselves into being subject to capital gains tax.

“The mentality still seems to be is that many, if anything, they are buying the dip mentality and don’t mind that it’s down and still thinking long term. We’ve seen no slowdown in volume growth and no real change in the selections either of what people are buying. We’re seeing maybe a little bit more of things like Berkshire Hathaway, which tends to pop up more in conversations around these times… because it’s sort of the contrarian value type investor and an asset and sitting on a large amount of cash.

“I wonder whether there is sort of, you know, potentially there’s a reflection of that mindset going, I may want to have a little bit less of the AI growth exposure and I wouldn’t mind a bit more traditional value and sort of that Warren Buffett mindset, sitting on a large amount of cash and maybe sort of biding his time.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Miscommunication from the Reserve Bank has driven interest rates higher than they should be, Kiwibank economists say, but they expect the economy to recover next year, anyway.

Kiwibank has released its outlook for 2026, noting that the Reserve Bank is currently “at the centre of some confusion”.

Wholesale rates have lifted since the bank’s last official cash rate announcement, even though it reduced the rate.

It was firmer than some had expected in its view that rates would not have further to fall.

The resulting increase in swap rates led to Westpac and the Co-Operative Bank increasing what they charge some fixed-term home loan borrowers.

Kiwibank economist Sabrina Delgado said the issue could be easily addressed by the Reserve Bank, when it made another announcement in February.

“Ultimately, it’s a bit annoying and premature to be seeing financial conditions tightening, and it’s frustrating, because it is coming from another misstep from the Reserve Bank,” she said.

“Although the Reserve Bank cut rates, with the obvious intention of lowering retail rates for businesses and households, a higher-than-expected OCR track has catapulted wholesale rates higher. Traders are now factoring in rate hikes – no longer cuts – in early 2026.

“That’s way too aggressive and premature.”

Kiwibank’s economists said the misstep “is all too familiar”.

“Over the last few years, the Reserve Bank have bounced around from being hawkish in November, dovish in February, hawkish in May and then dovish in August. There seems to be some seasonality to their mishaps.

The miscommunication in November, along with climbing wholesale rates and higher retail lending rates, suggest we may indeed get another dovish commentary in February.

“It’s silly, we know. At the end of the day, retail rates are in a lower bound, although not as low as they should be.

“The Reserve Bank can – and should – lower wholesale rates with the stroke of a pen in February or from a speech at any time.”

Delgado said it would not change her outlook for an improvement next year.

“For us, rate hikes are still a 2027 story. It’s just that markets were given a bit of a poor signal.”

She said unemployment was probably at its peak and employment growth should rebound from the middle of next year.

The housing market was likely to pick up too, she said.

“Sales are up 6 percent, compared to October last year, and where sales go, prices follow.”

Kiwibank expected house prices to rise about 2-3 percent next year.

“That’s not exactly shooting the lights out, but it is an improvement from trekking sideways over the last two years.”

The economy was likely to grow about 2.4 percent next year and about 3 percent the following year, they said.

This year was tipped to be the year of recovery, but it stalled mid-year.

They said that was for two reasons – the hit to confidence from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the fact the Reserve Bank kept interest rates higher than would support growth.

“It was only in October, that the Reserve Bank took the cash rate below neutral and into more stimulatory territory. For most of the year, policy remained restrictive.

“We won’t dwell on the Reserve Bank’s past mistakes though. It would take too much ink and paper, and we’re mindful of climate change.

“What matters most for the Kiwi outlook is that policy settings are now at levels which should encourage activity. A cash rate at 2.25 percent is more supportive of a solid recovery in 2026.

“Compared to last year, interest rates are meaningfully lower and they should stay low for a while yet.”

Delgado said they were excited for a broad-based recovery.

“We finally have all the right settings, with interest rates being at levels that encourage activity, we’re already seeing those markets for recovery now with everything on the table for a great year of recovery – we’ve got consumption up, business confidence firmer, the job market is stabilising, housing activity is starting to pick up.”

She said discretionary “fun” spending was already showing improvements.

“We’re also hearing from businesses they’re experiencing more activity and they’re feeling more confident with the outlook.”

She said the economy should normalise to something like its pre-Covid form, rather than the experience before the downturn, when there was a lot of fiscal and monetary policy stimulus.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Got questions? RNZ has launched a new podcast, ‘No Stupid Questions’, with Susan Edmunds.

We’d love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but even better, you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz.

You can also sign up to RNZ’s new money newsletter, ‘Money with Susan Edmunds’.

Does using a credit card and incurring the transaction fee cost more than the hot points earned if you pay it off every month?

If you’re paying a surcharge on every transaction you make, then you’re probably paying more than you’re getting in rewards.

According to investment adviser Jeremy Sullivan, the rate of reward you can get from a credit card at the moment ranges from anything from 0.5 percent of your spending to 1.43 percent (on an Amex Airpoints platinum card).

So, if you’re paying two percent on all your transactions, plus your card’s annual fee, you’re not keeping up.

But you might find that you have quite a few transactions that don’t have a surcharge attached at all – the supermarket, for example, doesn’t charge you to use a credit card. And new rules are still intended to take effect that would rule them out on in-store payments by May.

It’s generally a good idea to have a rewards card if you spend a lot on your credit card (at least $10,000 a year). If you don’t, you’re probably better going for a lower-fee, no-rewards option. And if you carry a credit card balance, you’re best to go for a low-interest card.

I’m employed, 57, one wife, no kids. What happens to my KiwiSaver if I die without a will?

KiwiSaver becomes part of your estate if you die. If you have a will, it’s distributed according to that.

If you don’t, there are rules that kick in.

If you have a spouse and no kids or living parents, your wife will get the whole thing. She might also have a claim under the relationship property act anyway because KiwiSaver is relationship property.

When you have a spouse and kids and don’t have a will, your spouse gets personal effects like your furniture and household belongings, $155,000 and a third of anything left, and kids get the other two thirds.

If you don’t have kids but your parents are still alive, they can claim a third after that same calculation.

If you don’t have any family at all and no one can find anyone who might stand to inherit, the money could go to the government. Public Trust says anyone who thinks they should have benefited from the estate can apply to the New Zealand Treasury to be considered.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A major Queenstown tourism operator and two other contractors have been sentenced for contributing to a landslip that inundated a residential street, forcing dozens of evacuations during record rainfall.

Skyline Enterprises, along with contractors Naylor Love Central Otago Limited and Wilsons Contractors Limited, were charged for breaches of the Resource Management Act.

A major landslip inundated Reavers Lane during torrential rain in September 2023, leaving 10 homes red-stickered.

Judge John Hassan sentenced the companies in the Christchurch District Court on Friday afternoon.

Skyline Enterprises were fined $130,000, Naylor Love $154,000, and Wilsons Contractors $61,600.

As part of an enforcement order, the companies were ordered to cover repair costs incurred by the Queenstown-Lakes District Council of over $200,000, as well as emotional reparation payments amounting to $12,000.

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