Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Bay investors badly burned in $40m losses

Hawkes Bay Today
24 Jan, 2008 02:00 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

HELEN STIRLING
HAWKE'S Bay investors were stung more than most by finance company collapses, with losses in the region topping $40 million, investors' advocate Chris Lee said yesterday.
The Wellington-based adviser was speaking at a public meeting in Napier yesterday attended by more than 40 people. The meeting was organised by the
Exposing Unacceptable Financial Activities Society, a voluntary group seeking accountability on behalf of mum and dad investors.
Mr Lee said he had received 103 emails from concerned residents between Waipukurau and Napier who he said had received poor financial advice.
"That's a disproportionate level of complaints and losses out of [First Step, Bridge Corp, Capital + Merchant and ING's Income Fund] compared with the rest of the country," Mr Lee said.
He estimated $40 million had been lost by Hawke's Bay investors into ING's Income Fund, an income derivatives fund; First Step (in liquidation), a propriety product of finance company structure offered by Money Managers; Bridge Corp (in receivership) and Capital + Merchant Finance (in receivership).
Napier resident Helen Cannon who attended the meeting was shocked to learn New Zealand was the last country in the OECD not requiring regulation of financial advisers. "That's an appalling situation."
She learned about the process of winning compensation and how a group of investors could achieve this. "But that isn't as easy as you think."
Mr Lee spoke about what investors were entitled to expect from a financial adviser and what constituted action or advice and the rights to compensation when advice was wrong.
"[An investor is] entitled to expect knowledgeable and genuine understanding of what they are getting," he said. "When you get losses with fixed interest products or get an adviser who has no knowledge and is just a conduit for a company to sell its products - that is actionable."
He cited one Hawke's Bay adviser who put large amounts of investors' money into Bridge Corp. "There is no convention in the industry to put up to 80 per cent of people's money into one finance company. That breaks the rules of diversification, which every trained adviser understands."
Mr Lee said settlements had been made by advisers who had reimbursed investors rather than be disgraced. "If they were in Australia or the US they would probably go to jail."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP