The Central Bank of Ireland has notified EML Payments’ UK/Irish subsidiary Prepaid Financial Services that it will continue to limit growth in payment volumes to 10 per cent above an agreed baseline. The restriction will apply until the end of next year. The CBI launched regulatory action in May last year because of concerns about the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing within the business, as well as its concerns about the company’s risk management framework and governance. The company had hoped the intervention would be brief but the costs and restrictions involved are proving to be a long-term headache for the company. The RBNZ’s review of its performance over the pandemic finds that its monetary policy decisions were consistent with the data available at the time, the easing in monetary policy during the pandemic was warranted and worst-case economic scenarios were avoided. But it also concedes that the Funding for Lending programme “could have been designed with more flexibility” and says that "with the benefit of hindsight, it appears that monetary policy should have been tightened earlier in 2021".  It will take up to two years to implement open banking in New Zealand, with Kiwi banks the first sector to be required to introduce it. The CDR regime may later expand to other financial services, telecommunications, insurance, energy, and health. The new details around open banking were announced by the government on Thursday, with Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark saying “the key point is that open banking allows customers to shop around for better deals. That means banks will also have to work harder to retain their customers, leading to savings for consumers.”  Commercial finance broker and aggregator COG Financial Services has appointed Richard Balzar as chief financial officer, with immediate effect. Balzar was previously CFO of MKM, a business owned by MA Financial Group. He has had senior finance roles at Pepper Money and Macquarie Bank. He replaces John McRae, who is leaving at the end of the month.