Lombard Finance in trouble

Another finance company bites the dust, or at least puts a hold on the repayment of funds.

Lombard Finance, with it’s ‘strong’ image of roman columns is the latest in a long string of finance companies that have hit the wall. When will it end? Who will be next?

Lombard’s chief executive, Michael Reeves, blamed the latest collapse “on a systematic failure of an entire industry”.

There are more than likely to be well performing finance companies out there who will be unjustly affected by this latest collapse, as investors rush to remove their funds and deposit them in more secure investments. But, I can’t imagine any amount of advertising or spin being able to reassure the public that even reputable firms are ‘safe’ – people are just too scared. And so more collapses are likely.

On a more purile note, TVNZ has lost another sponsor…Capital Merchant (collapsed in December 2007) sponsored the late news. Lombard Finance sponsored the Sunday Theatre (I think…please correct me if I’m wrong)…and while they haven’t collapsed, Hanover sponsor the weather updates – will they be next? I hope not.

Here’s the advertisement: in these turbulent times perhaps we should be investing our money in RaboPlus…the only bank in New Zealand with a Triple A rating. They consistently pay the best rates (at least in the short/medium term) for funds, and their on-call account returns almost the same (8.35% p.a) as some of these finance companies were for term deposits.   (Hanover is returning 8.25% for one and two month Term Deposits).

Disclaimer: I’m a Click Suite account manager working on the RaboPlus account.