Briefs: Wide Bay Bank, NAB baulks at ApplePay, bank exec movements, and more 06 February 2015 4:31PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Approval for a change of company name was given by Wide Bay Australia shareholders. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has consented to the community-based lender's use of the restricted word 'bank'. Wide Bay Australia will become Auswide Bank on April 1. The bank will be Australia's tenth (and Queensland's third) Australian-owned bank to be listed and traded on the ASX, according to John Humphrey, Wide Bay Australia's chairman. National Australia Bank's US subsidiary Great Western Bank continues to dither over signing up with Apple Pay. Sixty-two banks and credit unions are now signed up, Mac 9 to 5 reports, with another dozen added in recent days. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week that that $2 out of every US$3 spent using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express contactless cards in the US were made through Apple Pay. New Zealand regional bank TSB Bank has challenged its much larger rivals with the launch of New Zealand's first ten year fixed mortgage rate. The mortgage fixed at 5.89 per cent for ten years is available to owner-occupier and investment borrowers with a 20 per cent deposit. The previous longest fixed term was five years, which is currently set at around six per cent by most banks. ANZ has announced that one of the architects of its successful merger in New Zealand of its ANZ and National banking systems is moving to Melbourne to head up the Australian group's Enterprise services operation. ANZ New Zealand said Chief Operating Officer (COO) Craig Sims would relocate to Melbourne to head Enterprise services, which supports finance, risk and human resources. Sims will be replaced as New Zealand COO by Michael Bullock, who was General Manager of Institutional and Commercial Operations in New Zealand. Bullock worked for Citigroup for 14 years in corporate and investment banking before joining ANZ. Australia's Future Fund trimmed its debt investments once more over the second half of 2014. A periodic update released yesterday shows the Future Fund reduced its debt investments to 10.8 per cent of total assets at the end of December 2014. At June 2014 this proportion was 11.3 per cent and it was 12.2 per cent of total assets at December 2013. Bendigo Bank's head of credit risk management, Stephen Gorman, is to lead its business banking operations with effect from 2 February. He will report directly to the bank's retail executive, Dennis Bice. Gorman has been at BEN for two years, following a 24-year career at National Australia Bank with experience in business banking, property, agribusiness, health and corporate relationship management. His stated aims are to both "deepen" existing customer relationships and increase the numbers of business banking customers. Bernie Fraser will be replaced by current director Garry Weaven as chair of ME Bank, effective immediately. Fraser, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is retiring after 15 years on the ME board. Fraser started as chair of the bank's forerunner, Super Members Home Loans. ME Bank acquired a full banking licence in 2001 in conjunction with Axa. Fitch Ratings said that the Reserve Bank of Australia's official interest rate cut of 25 basis points - which has already been matched or bettered by most major lenders - would have no impact on mortgage performance. The reasoning is fairly straightforward: not only are mortgage rates in Australia at their lowest point in 50 years, petrol prices are also the lowest for several years, boosting household finances. In short, right now is one of the least likely times for any borrowers who remain employed to be unable to make their mortgage payments.