Veda plan raises data privacy questions, Harmoney targets mortgage market, Kiwifruit growers told how to vote

In NBR Print today, New Zealand’s only peer-to-peer lender, Harmoney [FSP:368046], is firming up plans over the next few weeks to enter New Zealand’s mortgage market. The company is making waves in the loan sector, matching borrowers anonymously with lenders looking to invest. Some of the funding comes from everyday New Zealanders, with a surprising twist – who’s lending what to who? Business reporter Calida Smylie finds out.

In what appears to be a national first, a voting paper is advising how kiwifruit growers should vote in a referendum billed as the most significant review of the industry in 16 years. Is this, as one industry veteran quips, “a jackup by the greedies who want to keep hold of their privileges” or is it the creation of a regulatory industry structure that supports the sustainable, long-term growth of the industry? Jamie Ball investigates.

An initiative to combat rising credit fraud, to be trialled this month, is already raising questions about data privacy despite its benefits. An alarming increase in credit fraud is encouraging Veda, New Zealand’s largest credit bureau, to suggest a “closed fraud shared user database” to help fight the threat. Nathan Smith reports.

Technology company Tomizone is lining up a reverse listing on the ASX, reveals Chris Keall. If all goes to plan, a prospectus will be out mid-March, with a listing in April.

The hallmark of the government’s approach to questions about its SkyCity [NZX:SKC] convention centre deal has been to alternate semantic hair-splitting with stonewalling. Nick Grant, for one is not putting up with it anymore. And if that means burning bridges instead of building them, so be it.

Are the wheels falling off Fonterra’s [NZX:FSF] Chinese expansion plans? This is a question Shoeshine asks amid fresh concerns about the financial performance of an acquisition target company in China.

Meanwhile, does Fonterra's Shareholders Council add any value? Jacqueline Rowarth reckons the Council has significant work to do in the next few weeks to show it is adding more than costs to Fonterra’s business, and therefore the businesses of the shareholders. 

A pall of complacency, even lethargy, is hanging over world sharemarkets, writes Nevil Gibson in Margin Call.

In a decision which will alter the law of trusts, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a $30 million trust dispute between Rotorua saw mill mogul Mark Clayton and his ex-wife. The court’s ruling has thrown out the idea of a ‘illusory’ trust in this country, which one expert says means in commercial cases it is harder to get at trust assets. Victoria Young has the story.

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler will defy financial markets next week and hold off any interest rate cuts. Of equal intrigue, writres Rob Hosking, will be further targeted moves to slow down an overheating housing market.

The potential of dodgy builders to blight the construction boom is being targeted by a property industry heavyweight who wants the joint and several liability legislation changed so the “last man standing” doesn’t take the entire financial blow for substandard work on developments.

In Order Paper, Rob Hosking says National’s target of returning the government books to surplus this year always looked a bit dubious.

All this and more in today’s National Business Review. Out now.