Hanover takes axe to Aussie staff

Hanover Finance is to cut its Australian staff from 44 to 32, saying the operation's new chief executive is confident it can operate with fewer employees.

Hanover chief executive Sam Stubbs said his company's Australian consumer finance division had a new chief executive who believed it could do the same business with less staff.

"I said 'thank you very much I'll take the cost saving'. The business is still open and functioning normally. This is a new CEO wanting to run the business his way."

The downsizing process began about a month ago and would finish by early December.

Stubbs said Hanover's core New Zealand staff count was stable. About 15 contractors who had been working on the implementation of new financial reporting standards and a new Microsoft customer relationship platform would finish with the company between now and February.

Meanwhile, Hanover's debenture reinvestment rate was picking up again after the investor flight in the wake of the Bridgecorp and subsequent finance company failures.

The end of September marked the due date for quarterly interest payments to investors across the industry "and we haven't heard any bad news yet", Stubbs said.