This is a collection of links to news around New Zealand and the world overnight that may be of interest to executives, product managers, regulators, policy-makers in the banking, finance and insurance industries. This was provided exclusively this morning to the paying subscribers to our Banking and Finance newsletter. 1. Further weakness - Reserve Bank figures show mortgage loan approvals weakened again in the last week, although it was the second shortened Easter week. The value of mortgage approvals in the last week was NZ$578.2 million, down from NZ$646.4 mllion the previous (also shortened) week. Loan approvals in the last 13 weeks are down 25.2% from the same 13 weeks a year ago. This is another sign weak demand from home buyers and more cautious lending from capital-constrained banks will keep a lid on the housing market and consumer spending. 2. Legal action - ANZ faces legal action from liquidators for Australia's Primebroker Securities and a claim for A$98 million in damages, Business Day reports. 3. Basle III - Blogger Mike Konzcal has a good look at what may come out of Basle III and reckons it may not be enough to keep the 'Too Big to Fail' banks under control. 4. New data centre - ANZ has opened a new NZ$78 million data centre in Auckland on time and on budget within 11 months. This was first published this morning in our Daily Banking and Finance newsletter, which is for our paying subscribers. Find out more here.
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