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Photo: 123RF The fact that about half the population is saving for retirement despite the current cost-of-living crisis shows how resilient people are, the Retirement Commission says. New research gathered by the commission found more than half of the 3000 survey respondents described their financial position as "uncomfortable". Women were feeling it more - as were young people aged between 18-35, the commission's personal finance lead Tom Hartmann said. "The situation of financial discomfort for women has significantly worsened … since 2022, it's gone from 51 percent to 60 percent and 64 percent of women report feeling financial stress," Hartmann told Midday Report. "It's quite concerning to see so many New Zealanders struggling financially but it's good to see those who manage to sti...

The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland. Photo: ekays/123RF The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter has agreed to further reduce its energy use to help ease the country's supply constraints. The agreement with Meridian Energy would see the smelter reduce electricity consumption by another 20 megawatts (MW), with the energy made available to the national grid over a five-week period. The deal was separate to earlier demand response agreements signed with Meridian and Contact Energy. New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), said it had taken off 185 MW of usage already and the additional 20 MW would help reduce pressure on the grid. Twenty MW would be enough to power all the homes in the city of Napier, NZAS said. New Zealand's electricity supply has come under immense strain in recent mont...

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has welcomed the Commerce Commission's report and recommendations into the banking sector, saying it confirmed what Kiwis had long suspected: "We are not getting a good deal from the big banks." Willis said the commission had conducted its work "fearlessly" and it's conclusions were robust. "It has provided actionable insights and our government is responding with urgency." She said the sector was dominated by four major players that made up 90 percent of the market. "They are highly profitable compared with international peers, they lack innovation and they do not aggressively compete for customers." No new banks had entered the market to challenge the status quo since Kiwibank was set up, Willis said. She was joining the commission to call out market behavi...

Photo: RNZ BNZ will no longer charge first-home buyers and other low-equity borrowers a higher interest rate. The bank said on Tuesday that as well as cutting home loan rates - its one-year rate is now 6.55 percent - it was moving to a single set of home loan fixed interest rates. Previously, it offered "standard" and" "classic" rates - classic rates were available to people who had more than 20 percent equity in their properties. BNZ said the classic rate had interest rates that were 60 basis points higher. Now, borrowers with less than 20 percent equity will be able to access standard rates, although they will still be charged a low-equity premium. This premium ranges 150bps for borrowers with deposit of less than 5 percent through to 35bps with those between 15 percent and 20 percent....

Photo: 123RF Many small businesses continue to resist the transition to digital payment systems despite growing demand from consumers. Research by global small business platform Xero indicates three quarters (75 percent) of consumers will use a physical bank card to pay in store, while one-in-seven (14 percent) will use their mobile phone. Only 8 percent of customers had cash available to pay in store, compared with nearly three quarters of small businesses (72 percent) who relied on cash to keep their business going. Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said only 17 percent of small businesses offered digital payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. "Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of embracing innovative payment solutions, starting with the introduction of EFTPOS, whi...