Money Week is a great time to spring clean your personal financial arrangements says the New Zealand Bankers’ Association. Money Week brings together a range of financial education activities from 2 to 8 September.

“Most people think about their personal finances when faced with big life events such as studying, starting work, buying a house or retiring. New Zealand’s first ever Money Week gives us all a chance to think about what we’re doing with our money and how we’re planning for the future.

“Knowing how best to manage your money to meet your needs and aspirations helps you, your family and your community. It’s also essential to our country’s economic growth,” says New Zealand Bankers’ Association chief executive Kirk Hope.

New Zealand banks are right behind improving our financial literacy. Well-informed customers are better placed to make borrowing and investment decisions.

“It’s all about people making informed choices to improve their financial well-being. It’s good for banks, and good for their customers.

“We encourage people to get advice on what’s best for them financially in terms of their personal circumstances,” says Hope.

Banks are involved in a variety of financial literacy initiatives, ranging from community education to online money management information and tools for their customers. They also provide information on specific banking products and services.

Get more information about financial literacy, including a free guide to unravelling financial jargon, and what banks do in this area.

A great independent online resource is the internationally acclaimed Sorted website: www.sorted.org.nz.

For information about specific Money Week activities in your area, go to http://moneyweek.org.nz/.

The New Zealand Bankers’ Association said today that PwC’s Banking Perspectives analysis of the major banks’ results for the first half of their 2012 financial years showed New Zealand banks were continuing to perform well in the face of ongoing global uncertainty.

“Our banking industry is in good shape. It’s well capitalised and regulated. Our strong and stable banks provide a great platform for the economic growth we need,” said New Zealand Bankers’ Association chief executive Kirk Hope.

“The increase in lending to the commercial sector is a sign that businesses are looking to invest more, which is good for the economy.

“There’s been a significant improvement in asset quality. Bad debt expenses are down 27%. This demonstrates that banks are working hard with customers who themselves in financial difficulty. It’s in both the customers’ and banks’ interests to deal with any issues as soon as possible.

“While the average net interest margin increased slightly to 2.4% in the first half of 2012, our banks continue to be very competitive. This is good news for customers. Interest rates are at historic lows and will likely stay down longer than expected. Banks are working hard to manage their funding costs.”

Hope added it was important to acknowledge the industry’s significant investment in New Zealand. “Not only do banks support our economy though lending and investment services, and providing a world-class payments system, they also make a big direct contribution. In 2011 the banking industry spent $4.46 billion in New Zealand and paid $1.3 billion in tax. Banks also provide employment for over 25,000 people in New Zealand.”

The New Zealand Bankers’ Association is urging the public to be on guard against an email scam. Scammers are sending emails out which appear to come from a New Zealand Bankers’ Association email address: nzba@nzba.org.nz.

The scam emails include a subject line of “We are necessitating a verification process on all account(s)”.

Anyone receiving this email, or anything similar, should delete it immediately. Do not click on any links within the email, and do not disclose any personal information.

“This scam was relatively easy to spot because the Bankers’ Association is not a bank, and would never ask people about their bank accounts.

“People are reminded to safeguard information relating to their bank accounts, and never to disclose their PIN numbers or account passwords to anyone. I would like to emphasise that the New Zealand Bankers’ Association, and its member banks, will never ask a customer to disclose their PIN number or account password,” said New Zealand Bankers’ chief executive Kirk Hope.

This kind of scam is known as “phishing”. Phishing scams try to get your bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.

Get more information about phishing scams

A reduction in compliance costs could be on the way for small and medium sized companies if the new financial reporting bill passes later this year. New Zealand Bankers’ Association CEO Kirk Hope says the savings could be significant.

The New Zealand Bankers’ Association welcomes the recent introduction of the Financial Reporting Bill by Commerce Minister Craig Foss.

The Bill seeks to remove or reduce unnecessary and excessive reporting requirements. This will significantly cut costs for small and medium-sized companies. It will also further reduce barriers to doing business in New Zealand by better aligning our reporting requirements with those in other countries.

“We commend the government’s decision to streamline financial reporting requirements. This will support New Zealand business growth and development, which is vital to improving our economic performance,” said New Zealand Bankers’ Association chief executive Kirk Hope.

Small and medium-sized companies will no longer be required to prepare general purpose financial reports. Instead they will be able to file reports which are more appropriate to their businesses. Guidelines for these special purpose reports are being developed by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA). The New Zealand Bankers’ Association is keen to work with NZICA to ensure the cost burden for small and medium-sized companies is minimised and information is consistent and standard