New Zealand shares rose yesterday, paced by SkyCity Entertainment Group and Meridian Energy as investors mulled a possible rate cut.

A newly licensed online lending service is targeting prospective homeowners who have been shut out of the mainstream mortgage market by low-equity loan restrictions.

Expectations of rising house prices remain close to historic highs in ASB's quarterly survey of housing market sentiment.

Future economic shocks may hit households harder than in past financial tremors, according to a paper by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Fonterra will late this month release its milk price forecast for 2015/16 and indications are that it will be towards the lower end of market expectations.

An official cash rate of 3.5 per cent, which would have been base camp in previous cycles, is now being seen as the highest it will climb this time.

Core retail spending (excluding fuel and vehicle-related spending) fell 0.8 per cent in April, the first time since last June.

Macquarie chief executive Nicholas Moore took home more than A$45,000 ($47,618) a day last year as the investment group posted its best profit result since the global financial crisis.

BNZ cash earnings have risen 4.5 per cent in the six months ended March 31 to $418 million as growth in housing and business lending, and lower funding costs, drove up net interest income.

Rich-lister Stephen Jennings has launched defamation action against Fairfax Media and a senior journalist Michael Field about Jennings' business activities in Russia and Kenya.

The kiwi dropped yesterday after data showed annual wage inflation in the private sector slowed to a 0.3 per cent pace in the three months ended March 31.

ANZ New Zealand boss David Hisco says the country's biggest bank is working closely with rural customers as falling dairy prices begin to bite, but farmers are better placed to deal with the....

The dropping of Airpoints from BNZ credit cards has lowered the bank's travel reward performance in the latest credit card research.

China Construction Bank New Zealand is on a recruiting drive as it pushes for a slice of the growing market facilitating trade between this country and the world's second-biggest economy.

HSBC's decision in 1993 to abandon Hong Kong for London's Canary Wharf was one of modern history's worst business moves.

The home loan environment could be "as good as it gets" for borrowers, although the potential remains for mortgage rates to track even lower, says Westpac NZ CEO David McLean.

Homeowners look set to enjoy further interest rate cuts, with a broker tipping historic lows within 12 months.

Like a spoilt child and an angry parent locked in an experiment of tough love, Greece and its creditors are embroiled once more in a tug-of-war.

Instead of using KiwiSaver to buy your first house but be tied to one place, get a home on wheels and wake up to a new view every morning. But is this a possibility?

Exactly how much you can do via online banking has been under the microscope in a new survey looking at major banks' use of online space.

The survey's index lifted four points from its March level to 129. It has only rarely been higher than this in the past 10 years.