My last post covered the valuation of Kiwibank and its parent company, Kiwi Group Holdings Limited. As you may know, in August, the government decided to acquire this banking group. While most of the attention focused on the sale of Kiwibank, little attention was paid to the sale of Kiwi Wealth, the group’s wealth and… Read More The mysterious sale of Kiwi Wealth
Prompted by the announcement of the government acquiring Kiwibank for $2.1 billion, I wanted to know how they calculated that. The amount is large, about $400 per New Zealander. If you spend over $400 on something, I’m guessing you’d want to know why $400 and not one dollar, or perhaps $350? In the last couple… Read More The Value of Kiwibank
With Grant Robertson’s announcement today that Kiwibank will be acquired for $2.1 billion from its state-owned shareholders, it is clear that the government hasn’t learned much about banking since the global financial crisis. Despite Robertson’s cynical spin about establishing a bank that is fully Kiwi-owned, one that keeps all profits in New Zealand, and will… Read More New Zealand’s bailout of Kiwibank
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand just published its latest Financial Strength Dashboard data. It is now up to date until 31 December of last year. A summary Capital went up. Largely thanks to restrictions on distributions and perhaps a donation from a generous parent bank, aggregate CET1 ratios are now well over twelve percent.… Read More Fresh RBNZ dashboard data confirms New Zealand’s banks are resilient – again
This week and the last, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand published two speeches discussing the strength of our financial system. It has been a while that I heard Geoff Bascand and Toby Fiennes on this topic, their speeches were as welcome as they were overdue. Geoff encouraged banks to be courageous. To support the… Read More Balls please, no horses
And what does it mean for one bank in particular? Last week, audit firm KPMG published its quarterly Financial Institutions Performance Survey (or FIPS). It featured the deteriorating profitability of New Zealand’s banks. Bad news of course, and the New Zealand financial press quickly jumped on the survey. Radio New Zealand printed a headline sporting… Read More Eyes Wide Shut: Did Bank Capital Grow under RBNZ’s Governor Orr?
The idea that financial markets are efficient is fascinating. A compelling story about market efficiency is the one about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The Challenger broke apart within minutes after its launch on 28 January 1986. I remember it very well. It was a cold day, I was in Groningen, the Netherlands. I cycled back home… Read More The wisdom of crowds
In March 2009, the International Accounting Standards Board started an ambitious plan to make accounting for banks easier to understand. In no less than 97 pages, the IABS laid out its plan to reduce complexity in the reporting of financial instruments.* At the time, the IASB did the right thing. The standard in force was too complex.… Read More No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy
About a fortnight ago Kiwibank announced that its formerly disqualified capital instruments now re-qualify as capital. Yay! This after a the capital disqualification event on which I wrote not so long ago. There was almost no press coverage of the re-qualification. Yes, there was NBR’s Jenny Ruth who wrote a noisy and non-informative story on the… Read More Kiwibank capital flip-flop
No surprise here: the RBNZ decided to render two cocos ineligible for regulatory capital purposes. This is what Kiwibank reported yesterday. The holders of the instruments likely will keep their coupon, at the expense of the cash flows accruing to Kiwibank. The reason for derecognising the instruments remains a bit of a puzzle: RBNZ “has… Read More RBNZ decides on Kiwibank cocos – uh oh
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