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All 66 of the surviving companies in New Zealand's finance company sector have now given assurances to the Securities Commission that they are in sound financial health, the commission said last night.
The commission last week wrote to every finance company in the country requesting confirmation that the firms' prospectuses reflected their true financial position in spite of a run on their funds sparked by the recent failures in the sector.
Of the 49 companies the commission initially wrote to, 48 had responded by the earlier deadline of Wednesday night this week.
Auckland-based Five Star Consumer Finance was the only firm that failed to respond. Instead, it called in the receivers, making it the seventh company to fail in the past 16 months.
The Business Herald understands the commission's letter added to pressure on Five Star's board to wind the company up.
"I would say that was one of many considerations in this instance," said receiver Richard Agnew of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The remaining 18 had until yesterday to respond, and all had done so, the commission said.
The commission has yet to decide whether it is satisfied with the veracity of the responses it received this week, a spokeswoman said. A similar letter last week from sharemarket operator NZX to all listed finance companies flushed out Property Finance Group, whose shares were suspended last Friday, before the receivers were called in.
