A website that we stumbled across recently was for a company who sorts out PPI claims on behalf of people who have taken out such policies in the United Kingdom in recent years and who have credit cards or loans. Payment protection insurance is a well known type of policy that covers people in debt if they were to become unwell or have an accident that left them without a job or source of income.

Unfortunately, payment protection insurance is frequently mis sold to people within the United Kingdom. The most common case of PPI being mis sold is when the customer is sold a policy that couldn’t possibly help them if they were to find themselves in this situation. I Read more…

New Zealand has invested too much in being inventive, and not enough in taking inventive ideas to global markets, says the New Zealand Institute in a new report urging a national focus on overcoming the barriers to creating high value global businesses.

“Performance at the internationalisation stage by New Zealand firms has been weak,” says the report, entitled “A Goal Is Not A Strategy”, a reference to the government’s goal for New Zealand to catch up to Australian living standards by 2025.

“There is a shortage of entrepreneurs, experienced directors and well-trained managers, of capital, and of connections. Efforts to

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New Zealand now has a dozen fund managers with at least a billion dollars under management, according to the latest FundSource report.

AMP Financial Services is still the country’s biggest manager with $11.8 billion in total funds under management as at the end of the June quarter, leading ING New Zealand, the second biggest fundie including funds managed by ANZ and National Bank, by $4 billion. FundSource didn’t name the new manager with more than a billion dollars under management.

Total funds under management sank 2.4% to $53.4 billion in the three months ended June 30, with all asset classes bar fixed interest falling. Fixed interest rose 5.6% in the quarter, and makes up 13.9% of total managed funds. Cas

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Australian Dollar: The Aussie dollar experienced a roller coaster ride over the last 24 hours dropping to 0.8920 in Asia before bouncing back to 90 cents in early Europe only to retest 0.8920 in North American trade overnight. The announcement of July employment data out of Australia yesterday was met with caution despite the economy adding 23.5k jobs in the month, a result which was slightly above economist forecasts of a rise of 20k. With investors nervous about risky assets at the moment the focus instead was on the fact that the rises came in part time employment with full time employment decreasing and coupled with a rise in the participation rate, the headline unemployment rate actually rose from 5.1% to 5.3%.

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Despite the evident whiff of risk-aversion in the markets on Tuesday, government bond yields are edging higher, while short interest rate futures are making price gains allowing implied yields to creep lower. The market remains spellbound by what the Federal Reserve has to say about the health of the world’s largest economy this afternoon. In particular investors are clamoring to hear whether the central bank intends to further stimulate the economy now or later.

Eurodollar futures – Two months ago the FOMC was debating its exit strategy having almost tripled the size of its balance sheet from a pre-recession value of $900 billion. Las

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Aug 8 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand stocks fell for the second time in seven sessions, after tepid credit and debit card spending data weighed on Warehouse Group, Pumpkin Patch Ltd., and Hallenstein Glasson Holdings.

The NZX 50 fell 9.39 points, or 0.3%, to 3045.1. Within the index 24 stocks fell, 18 rose and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $74.8 million.

The NZSX Consumer Index edged down 0.2% to 1572.3, after Statistics New Zealand said the value of total electronic card transactions fell a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in July, ending five months of growth.

Hallenstein Glasson, the High Street clothing retailer, fell 1.3% to $3.90, Pumpkin Patch, the children’s clothing retailer, fell 0.6% to $1.72 and the Warehouse, New Zealand’s largest listed retailer, fell 0.6% to $3.51. Kathm

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July 30 () – New Zealand shares rose for the third straight day as optimism the globe will avoid a double-dip recession. Shares including Freightways Ltd. and Pumpkin Patch led the advance.

The NZX 50 Index gained 14.09, or 0.5%, to 3047.11. Within the index, 20 stocks rose, 19 fell and 11 were unchanged.

Freightways rose 2.6% to $2.82. The courier firm this week announced it had set up the infrastructure to allow traders on the TradeMe website to arrange shipments through the company’s network.

APN New & Media, the publisher of the New Zealand Herald, gained about 2% to $2.60 and children’s clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch rose 1.7% to $1.84.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.6% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slipped 1.6% today. Asia’s eq

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