Housing New Zealand has reached a $320 million settlement with insurers led by Suncorp Group’s Vero unit over 5,559 homes damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes, $110 million less than the state agency had originally claimed. The settlement involves for insurers in New Zealand, 23 in the UK and Europe, Lloyds of London and insurance broker Aon and is the largest-ever …

The Serious Fraud Office has added the scalp of former Dominion Finance and North and South Finance executive Paul Cropp to its tally of successful finance company prosecutions. Cropp was today found guilty in the High Court in Auckland relating to related party lending totaling approximately $13.57 million in breach of the companies trust deeds, the SFO said in a …

New Zealand food prices recorded their biggest drop since October 2011 last month, led by declines in prices of apples, tomatoes, kumara, mandarins and chocolate bars. Prices fell 1.3 percent in March from February and declined 0.4 percent from March 2012, according to Statistics New Zealand. The monthly decline was the biggest in 17 months. Food prices make up about …