Erik Fenna will step down as chief executive of lending standards body LIXI in late May after successfully delivering LIXI 2.0, the next generation of XML messaging standards for the lending industry. The Board has appointed Bruce Treloar as its next CEO, effective 1 May 2014. "Bruce comes to LIXI with a distinguished record in the finance sector with senior roles at Westpac and Bank of Melbourne, and with particular strengths in key industry projects such as electronic conveyancing", Paul Lahiff, LIXI chairman said. Westpac New Zealand has signed a five year partnership agreement to only issue Mastercards in future, although Westpac customers with current Visa cards will not have to switch to Mastercard. Westpac announced the deal as it launched its premium World Mastercard, aimed at high net worth individuals. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's NZ arm ASB, which has a partnership with Visa in New Zealand, stopped issuing new Mastercard credit and debit cards this week. ASB said it still offered a Mastercard cash passport stored value card. NAB has warned businesses trading in bitcoins that this poses an "unacceptable level of risk" to its business and reputation, and their accounts with the bank will be closed next month, according to digital currency website, coindesk.com. "The news is significant as NAB was previously Australia's most bitcoin-friendly bank, with their representatives actively seeking to build relationships with bitcoin businesses and working with them to understand digital currency issues like fraud prevention," coindesk.com noted. NAB's about-turn, coindesk.com suggested, could have followed the naming of Japanese bank Mizuho as a defendant in a US class action against bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. Members Equity Bank has issued and priced a new A$250 million four-year floating rate note, rated A3/BBB+ (all stable). The deal is priced at a margin of 130 basis points over the 3-month BBSW. Joint lead managers on the transaction were CBA, NAB and Westpac Institutional Bank. Settlement date will be 17 April 2014 Standard & Poor's yesterday assigned ratings to four classes of prime residential mortgage-backed securities originated by GE Capital Finance Australasia, now owned by Pepper Australia. The Pepper Prime Private Placement 2014-1 Trust comprises three AAA (sf) rated tranches totalling A$279. The RMBS deal also included $11.7m class B notes (rated AA- (sf)) and $1.5m class C notes, unrated. All loans have full mortgage insurance, S&P said.