FMA makes an example of Warminger, Shrinking AGM attendances, NZ to take lead in world trade

IN NBR Print today: Tim Hunter writes that although the High Court found only two of 10 market manipulation claims proven against portfolio manager Mark Warminger, that doesn’t make him only one-fifth of a market manipulator. “For an investment manager to manipulate the market at all is a serious professional offence. Yet the response to the court’s finding has been muted.”

Taking another point of view in Hidesight, Rodney Hide suggests market manipulation laws are needed because traders are “somewhat” like sheep. "I fail to see what he did wrong."

Dwindling shareholder numbers at company annual meetings is a worrying trend but New Zealand’s shareholder lobby group is adamant virtual meetings are not going to solve the problem. “Once physical meetings are lost, it’s going to be very hard to get them back,” says Michael Midgley, who points out that “when there’s an issue on which shareholders have strong feelings, they turn up in droves.” Calida Smylie reports.

Amid another round of news articles describing ugly financial losses at Fonterra’s Chinese business partner, Beingmate, a new question has emerged. Why is Beingmate investing in an insurance programme when it is making such hefty losses? And what is the strategic relevance? this week's Shoeshine columnist, Duncan Bridgeman, goes in search of the answer.

The Trans Pacific Partnership may have been trashed but the problems it was built to fix remain, writes Nathan Smith. “That represents an opportunity for New Zealand and other high-standard countries to fill the Trans Pacific Partnership vacuum and keep free trade’s momentum rolling.”

The insider who exposed one of the US’ biggest banking scandals has backed local calls for whistleblowers to be rewarded for their efforts. Martin Woods, who was the keynote speaker this week at an anti-money laundering conference in Auckland, famously exposed the billions of dollars being laundered by Mexican drug lords through Wachovia Bank in 2007. Read Karyn Scherer's exclusive interview. 

ASB Bank and Bank of New Zealand were again the big winners in the battle for market share in the mortgage market in the December quarter and this quarter Kiwibank joined them, increasing its market share for the first time in a year. Their growth came at the expense of ANZ Bank, the nation’s largest, and Westpac. Jenny Ruth reports.

Also this week the NBR Special Report: Doing business in China.

All this and more in today's NBR Print edition.