Amongst our market regulators and enforcers, the Serious Fraud Office would have to rate as the try-hard of the year. Despite running with an apparently intentionally low profile under director Julie Read, it was hard to ignore its role in New Zealand's largest courtroom bomb.
The SFO concluded its policing of finance companies with a whimper as its South Canterbury Finance (SCF) prosecution turned out to be over-reach. After beginning with claims of a $1.7 billion fraud the cases ended with only minor convictions.
Only one of three defendants was found guilty - and even then on relatively minor charges.
Justice Paul Heath effectively handed down a pox on everyone's houses at the High Court at Timaru, lambasting the company's late owner Allan Hubbard for business practices that ran beyond eccentric, the defendants for failing to rein him in, and the SFO for failing to call witnesses to substantiate its case.
Edward Sullivan, the only man convicted, could be forgiven for trying next year to halve his home detention sentence by having attendance at the epic six-month trial counted as time served.
The close of the SCF case leaves the Financial Markets Authority as the only public body still trying to make sense of the finance firm's collapse that defined the nation's experience of the global financial crisis.
The FMA is still trying to get resolution with Hanover Finance - which collapsed more than six years ago - with a long-brewing civil case expected to be heard in July. But the market watchdog would much rather have its 2014 remembered for switching its focus to market operation and information.
The shift in tack is welcome, particularly in a year when some shareholders perhaps tried a little too hard to float their companies. In a busy year for new listings on the NZX, the ones that stand out were those that didn't quite make it. Hirepool and Mega both talked a big game, but have baulked to date. And despite these downers, floating fever has not yet passed. Of note are two major media companies - notably the bank-owned MediaWorks, and this newspaper's owner NZME. - which are tipped to test the waters in the New Year.
The Commerce Commission tried to, and finally made, progress on copper line charging as Chorus finally agreed it could live with lower fees for access to its network.
It also started to take banks to task for trying too hard to flog interest rate swaps to an audience who perhaps didn't need or understand them.
The ANZ settled its case with the commission at the end of the year and set $19 million aside to compensate customers. The settlement also agreed to take the unusual step of admitting some liability, which may provide ammunition for disgruntled clients who are progressing private civil claims against banks.
ASB Bank was similarly targeted by the commission over the sale of swaps and announced a $3.2 million settlement on Christmas Eve. Westpac has also been targeted by the commission.
But the biggest triers of all in 2014 would have to be hackers, who locally tried accessing blogger Cameron Slater's emails, and internationally poked around Sony's, and succeeded. The two data breaches dominated domestic and international headlines.
With the publication of Dirty Politics and Sony staff reportedly reduced to faxing each other and the cinema release of The Interview initially canned, discussion and concern about information security has suddenly migrated from the tech desk to the boardroom.
2014's lesson to us all about online security? Must try harder.
