Australia & New Zealand Banking Group says its New Zealand division performed strongly in the final three months of last year as cash profit slipped 0.2 per cent.

Out-of-court settlements may be cheaper, quicker and more certain than seeing a case through - but they can often feel like a cop-out.

The head of the ANZ Championship accepts that the new conference model will be one of the ongoing discussion points of this year's competition, but is standing by the controversial change in format.

ANZ said it expects dairy prices to continue this year's firming trend at tomorrow's GlobalDairyTrade auction.

The economy was still on a roll as it started 2015, ANZ's Truckometer indicator suggests.

NZIER's monetary policy shadow board believes the Reserve Bank should leave the official cash rate on hold at 3.5 per cent tomorrow but that the next best option would be a cut.

The prospect of further rises in the Reserve Bank's official cash rate has disappeared over the horizon.

Consumers are feeling more cheerful going into the peak Christmas trading period, the ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey has found.

A $6 billion drop in dairy farmers' incomes this season is a blow to the wider economy, no question, writes Brian Fallow. But it's not all bad.

Senior New Zealand public servants' and chief executives' total collective pay is at the lowest level in six years.

Australian banks should be forced to hold more capital to minimise their risk of failure and improve competition, the Financial System Inquiry has found.

Middle-aged home buyers face being locked out of the property market because banks are worried they are too old to pay off their mortgage before they retire.

ANZ has admitted misleading conduct over interest rate swaps and up to 178 farmers will now have to decide whether to accept their share of $18.5 million from the bank.

ANZ will pay $18.5m to some of its rural customers who complained about interest rate swaps after reaching a settling with the Commerce Commission.

You don't need to walk far in Auckland to see that the face of the city has changed almost beyond recognition in recent decades.

The top financial institutions have held their positions on the Top 30 rankings for financial institutions.

Westpac NZ's record annual cash profit of $864m confirms a bumper year for the big banks. In fact, at $4.1b, that's almost $1000 for every man, woman and child in NZ.

ANZ New Zealand boosted annual earnings 17 per cent as the local unit of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group benefited from home loan lending growth and bedded down savings from the integration of the National Bank brand.

ANZ New Zealand's profit climbed $343 million in the past 12 months to a record $1.71 billion.

Workers at numerous ANZ branches around the country will resume strike action against the bank today at various times, including in nine branches around Auckland.

ANZ Bank union members will be walking off the job tomorrow, after a vote earlier this week to take strike action.

ANZ workers have announced a national strike over new employment agreements being offered to staff.

Almost a quarter of New Zealand executives think top-level managers' pay packets are out of kilter with reality, a survey suggests.

World prices for a basket of New Zealand's export commodities fell 1.3 per cent last month, with dairy products once more leading the decline.

Business confidence continued to slide last month, to its lowest levels since June 2012 in ANZ's Business Outlook survey.