FMA CEO Rob Everett, left, and Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr, after releasing the Bank Conduct and Culture Report. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today it's NZ banks being put "on notice", a report into Police Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha, and growing momentum to ban private sales of fireworks. Hosted by Frances Cook.
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NZ banks are in hot water for pressure over sales targets, and not policing their staff's behaviour.
The Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank spent four months looking at conduct and culture at 11 banks operating in New Zealand.
They released their joint 37-page report this afternoon.
It's found serious vulnerabilities in systems to proactively identify and fix conduct issues.
Poor outcomes for customers were increased by sales incentives for bank staff, with concerns some staff are pushed into selling products like personal loans, credit cards and insurance.
FMA chief executive Rob Everett says bank boards and senior management now need to urgently address what the report had found.
The report makes a range of recommendations, including greater board ownership and accountability, making it a priority to find and address conduct issues, strengthening staff reporting channels including whistleblower processes, and removing all incentives linked to sales measures.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi has wasted no time wading in, saying banks should consider themselves "on notice".
For their part, the New Zealand Bankers Association says it welcomes the report, and is pleased the review found no evidence of widespread misconduct and culture issues.
Acting chief executive Antony Buick-Constable says they fully accept the banks have work to do in many areas, to ensure they continue to do right by their customers.
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On the subject of banks, Westpac is the latest to announce major profits for the year, of $1.017 billion.
The Australian-owned bank says its cash earnings are up five percent compared to the prior year to September.
It's crediting growth in farm lending and deposits.
Westpac's profit follows ANZ last week reporting a near two-billion-dollar profit, and BNZ also cracking through one-billion-dollars in annual earnings.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the findings of the inquiry into the controversial Wally Haumaha appointment will be released "very shortly".
Though she is yet to read the report, Ardern said Cabinet received an oral briefing of the inquiry today.
"Our expectation is that it will be released very shortly."
An inquiry was ordered after a Herald investigation uncovered Haumaha made comments about rape allegations by Louise Nicholas, including that they were "a nonsense".
More inquiries were ordered after further Herald investigations uncovered bullying allegations against Haumaha, including that three women walked out of Police National Headquarters in June 2016, and refused to return because of Haumaha's alleged behaviour.
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Opposition leader Simon Bridges is standing resolute in the face of another leaked conversation with Jami-Lee Ross.
The rogue Botany MP recorded Bridges and Paula Bennett discussing the allegations of harassment and disloyalty against him, and the most politically advantageous way for Ross to go on leave.
Bennett says in the tape that describing it as medical leave is "the lightest possible way out of this".
During the conversation the trio discuss minimising media coverage of Ross' decision to take medical leave. They also discuss whether to cite medical or family reasons for taking leave.
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An incredible near-miss from the Bay of Plenty, after a baby was rescued from the sea by a fisherman, who thought the child was a doll.
It was pure luck that Gus Hutt was even in the area, as he usually heads straight out from Murphy's Holiday Camp to fish from the beach.
But on Friday, he decided to walk 100 metres to the left, towards Tauranga.
He was checking his lines that morning when he saw a seemingly lifeless child floating in the water. Hutt said the face looked like porcelain and the short hair was wetted down.
But then the 18-month-old let out a squeak, and Hutt realised it was alive.
Hutt grabbed the child by the arm, and pulled him to safety.
The fisherman's wife, Sue, ran to the holiday camp, where they found the parents.
It turns out the baby had pulled the zip up on the parents' tent while they were sleeping, and crawled underneath the flap, before making his way down to the beach.
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Boxing stalwarts are calling for a review of charity boxing events after a man was left fighting for his life after a match.
Kain Parsons was critically injured in a match against Steve Alfeld during the Fight for Christchurch event at Horncastle Arena on Saturday night.
He was one of 18 amateur boxers raising money for two charities.
It's understood he is fighting for his life in intensive care at Christchurch Hospital.
The news has rocked the boxing community, sparking calls for urgent safety changes.
Boxing NZ executive John McKay says corporate charity requirements need revamping.
He says amateur boxing's controls and restraints aren't found in corporate events.
There have been calls to include other safety measures such as compulsory headgear.
However, outspoken boxing enthusiast Sir Bob Jones says that's not the solution, and if anything, headgear is bad.
He says it's only worn to stop cuts on the brow area, but many people believe it will give head and brain protection.
Sir Bob Jones points out that if the brain gets jolted in boxing by a punch, it doesn't matter if there is headgear in front of it, it will still be jolted.
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Appetite is growing for a ban on personal fireworks, after a weekend of emergency callouts.
Fire crews were called to dozens of fires, and hundreds of homes lost power in West Auckland after electrical infrastructure was damaged.
Auckland Council is asking for feedback on the idea of a ban on public sales.
Investigators have already deemed fireworks to be the cause of a suspicious scrub fire that resulted in the evacuation of six homes at Lake Hawea, near Wanaka, on Friday.
Guy Fawkes is officially set for tonight, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand is pleading for the public to use fireworks responsibly.
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New high-tech "point to point" speed cameras will be tested in Auckland's Waterview Tunnel, and on a section of the Southern Motorway, before the Government decides whether to roll them out around the country.
The year-long trial of "average speed" cameras will begin around the middle of next year.
Motorists won't be ticketed for speeding for just a few seconds, but will be if their average speed over the distance between two cameras exceeds the limit.
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the intention is to stop people who are unnecessarily putting other people at risk by driving at an unsafe speed over a sustained distance.
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A community group says not enough is being done to save threatened kauri in the Waitākere Ranges.
The regional park has become a hotspot for the tree-killing kauri dieback disease, with the most recent survey showing it had spread to around 20 per cent of kauri in only a decade.
Now in a survey by the Waitākere Rāhui Team, volunteers visited every track entrance in the ranges and noted the status of signage, fencing, cleaning stations, along with use and conditions of track surfaces.
They found 14 tracks that were not clearly either open or closed, and had no signage or fencing.
Further, they found 20 of the 30 officially open tracks that did not comply with the standards of the Controlled Area Notice.
The group called on Auckland Council to urgently close the gaps and tighten enforcement before the summer holiday season begins.
However, council regional parks manager Rachel Kelleher says the audit appears to have covered a broader area than the Controlled Area Notice actually applies to, which could explain why there was no signage on some of the tracks surveyed.
In other cases, the council was aware that signs could go missing.
Kelleher says the general issue facing kauri in the park is complex and without precedent in New Zealand.
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Today marks one hundred years to the day since New Zealand soldiers liberated the northern French town of Le Quesnoy just before the end of World War I.
Hundreds of New Zealanders, including Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy, have attended commemorations in the town overnight.
A commemorative service at the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial finished up with a sunset performance of the Last Post.
New Zealand has unveiled a plaque to the town outside the town hall, and held a dedication ceremony for a planned New Zealand War Memorial Museum.
If you're interested to know more about Le Quesnoy, the New Zealand Herald and New Zealand On Air teamed up to produce a six-part documentary on the town, and its special relationship with New Zealand.
You can find that documentary here
That's the Front Page for today, Monday November 5, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.
You can subscribe to this podcast onApple podcasts here, and iHeartRadio here.
If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.
Government has also approved the use of psilosybin, known as magic mushrooms.