Briefs: eftpos completes payments Hub, Solid Energy in debt talks, home loans arrears increase, West

Payment company Eftpos has completed the build of its centralised payments hub and has connected five of ten direct connectors, including ANZ and, very recently, NAB. Eftpos chief executive Bruce Mansfield is expected to tell the Digital Disruption X conference in Sydney today that the hub is now processing almost 300,000 transactions a day, and his company has started to rollout multi-network debit cards featuring the new Eftpos chip. Terminals are being upgraded with the new Eftpos chip and contactless software. "The Eftpos chip will replace old mag stripe technology, enabling more choice and flexibility for customers on millions of Eftpos-enabled cards and hundreds of thousands of terminals," Mansfield will explain.

New Zealand state-owned coal miner Solid Energy has confirmed it is in talks with its banks, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ, BNZ, TSB Bank, Westpac and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, about a restructure of over NZ$300 million of debt. Chairman Andy Coupe said the company would not ask the Government for a third bailout and needed to restructure its debt to be sustainable beyond September 2016 because coal prices were 20 to 30 per cent below sustainable levels. Coupe also raised the possibility of new mine closures and assets sales.

Housing loans in arrears increased in January 2015 across both prime and non-conforming RMBS, as measured by Standard & Poor's Performance Index. Loans in arrears greater than 30 days underlying Australian prime RMBS increased by 11 basis points in January, to 1.12 per cent. Non-conforming RMBS arrears increased 28 bps to 5.66 per cent in January. But, according to S & P credit analyst, Narelle Coneybeare, it's not a cause for concern. She said the pattern was seasonal, of a similar magnitude to past years. Coneybeare said arrears typically rose through to March, before reducing back toward "normal" levels.

New Zealand's Invercargill-based regional bank SBS Bank has announced it will buy a 50 per cent stake in Staples Rodway Asset Management for an undisclosed sum. SBS aims to build its scale in the KiwiSaver state-subsidised pension market and boost its presence in the North Island of New Zealand. Staples Rodway is a chain of owner-operated accounting practices which owned the funds management administration service targeted at customers with more than NZ$1 million in assets.

Westpac New Zealand announced the appointment of independent director and KPMG NZ CEO Jan Dawson as chairwoman, replacing Peter Wilson, who is retiring.

China's securities industry is booming and the nation's banks are jostling to take advantage of any easing in government restrictions on ownership of brokerages, Bloomberg reports. This will amount to a challenge of the likes of Citic Securities and China International Capital Corp in Industrial Bank plans to acquire Huafu Securities, while Bank of Communications wants to purchase Royal Bank of Scotland's stake in Hua Ying Securities. The banks' plans point to a looming shakeup for the nation's brokerages, which numbered 120 in 2014 and have been protected for years by government restrictions on new entrants.

Indonesian lenders Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Tabungan Negara are turning to the capital market to raise fresh funds and to reduce reliance on short-term funding, according to news service Business Asia One. Mandiri finance and strategy director Pahala Mansury said the bank was looking to generate Rp 1 trillion ($110 million) in additional funds through mortgage-backed securities. BTN - the only Indonesian lender to offer such securities, known as KIK-EBA - has raised more than Rp 5 trillion to date in its home market.

The climate bond market has jumped ten-fold in two years to US$38 billion. By 2020, the so-called "green bond" market could be worth $1 trillion a year, as wind and solar companies, property investors and local, state and national governments tap soaring demand for clean energy investments. This trend is also showing up in Australia. Last December, NAB's initial A$150 million bond issue, to finance investments in 17 different wind and solar projects, was closed at $300 million after strong investor demand. The NAB deal came hot on the heels of Australia's first domestic green bond from property group Stockland a month earlier. The World Bank had previously raised A$300 million via the first green bond denominated in Australian dollars.