- New Zealand’s long awaited anti-money laundering laws are now in place, almost four years after Parliament passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.
- Kirk Hope says there are a range of questions that need to be addressed in considering tools that restrict amounts that can be borrowed to buy houses.
- “The Christmas period’s a special period for families, so the banking industry wanted to help people who hadn’t been paid and take out some of the stress from this period for them,” said Kirk Hope of the New Zealand Bankers’ Association.
- The Bankers Association commissioned Massey University’s Centre for Banking Studies to compare the return on shareholders’ equity for the banks, with those of the top 50 listed firms, between 2008 and 2012.
- Bank lobby group the New Zealand Bankers’ Association (NZBA) says bank profitability, based on return on equity (RoE) over the past five years, comes in mid-table when compared with bigger sharemarket listed companies.
- “It’s a useful step towards sorting out a very thorny and expensive compliance issue for us. We understand US moves to clamp down on tax evasion by Americans living around the world. But without an inter-governmental agreement, the US law’s provisions are virtually unworkable,” said Hope.
