Wellington, Aug 26 NZPA - Labour will lead the way on increasing savings, opposition finance spokesman David Cunliffe says, but he did not detail how.

Wellington, Aug 25 NZPA - The Labour Party is calling for "bold action" to improve New Zealand's savings rate and says setting up a working group to investigate options won't deliver answers.

By Kate Chapman of NZPA Wellington, Aug 24 NZPA - The savings working group faces what appears to be an insurmountable challenge -- finding a way to convince cash-strapped New Zealanders to put more of their hard earned money into a bank account.

Wellington, Aug 23 NZPA - The New Zealand Superannuation Fund recorded a gain in July after two months of negative returns, as equities markets improved.

Wellington, Aug 17 NZPA - The business sector appears to be gradually warming to the prospect of being involved in compulsory retirement savings schemes.

Wellington, Aug 17 NZPA - The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has big ideas of working towards a compulsory savings scheme where employers make the lion's share of contributions, but a business lobby says now is not the right time to increase the burden.

Wellington, Aug 16 NZPA - It was too early to say whether the Government would support compulsory retirement savings, Prime Minister John Key says. Finance Minister Bill English has asked the tax working group to organise a savings working group.

Wellington, Aug 15 NZPA - Compulsory retirement savings are reported to be on the table as part of a wider review of superannuation.

Wellington, Aug 11 NZPA - KiwiSaver diversified funds experienced their first negative quarter since March 2009, with negative returns across all fund types for the three months to June, consulting and investment firm Mercer says.

The Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) is progressing work on developing a standard for reporting the performance of managed funds.

The retail funds management industry shrunk during the June quarter, though boutique fund managers did well, according to FundSource. The amount of retail funds under management fell 2.5 percent, or $503 million, to $19.674 billion.

Wellington, July 2 NZPA - The boss of state-owned Kiwibank wants people to be compelled to join KiwiSaver, with individual contributions rising gradually over the next decade or two to reach 10 percent of income.

The clock is ticking and my advice to those that qualify and have time on their side, take action now.

Wellington, March 18 NZPA - The economic events of the last two years have provided a reality check and left many New Zealanders feeling unprepared for retirement, according to a survey by Mercer.

Finance Minister Bill English says no one should be surprised they will be taxed on their KiwiSaver contributions above the minimum 2 percent.

Wellington, Dec 9 NZPA - An overestimate of the costs of tax cuts and axing the annual $40 KiwiSaver fee subsidy is going to soften the blow for low income workers using the savings scheme, Finance Minister Bill English said today.

Wellington, Dec 9 NZPA - The Government has confirmed it will axe the annual $40 fee subsidy it puts into KiwiSaver accounts to help pay for a better deal for low income workers.

The Government is understood to be considering axing the annual $40 fee subsidy it puts into KiwiSaver accounts to help pay for a better deal for low income workers.

The Government will introduce legislation this week that is likely to include a change to KiwiSaver policy to help low income workers -- costing an additional $700 million over five years.

National will consider a union proposal to protect low-income workers from KiwiSaver changes. Prime Minister elect John Key invited and met Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott and Council of Trade Unions economist Peter Conway yesterday.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen has used the release of figures showing 827,000 people are now KiwiSaver members to attack National's plans to "gut" the scheme.

Wellington, Oct 14 NZPA - Marac Finance has joined the list of financial institutions intending to opt-in to the Government's deposit guarantee scheme.

Of the 800,213 people enrolled as KiwiSavers as of last Saturday more than 290,000 were automatically signed up when they started new jobs. Finance Minister Michael Cullen released the figures today. He said it was positive that 29 percent of those in the scheme were aged under 25.

More KiwiSavers will be able to divert contributions towards repaying their mortgages under changes to the scheme, Finance Minister Michael Cullen announced today.

Parliament has passed law to ensure employers pay contributions to their employees' KiwiSaver accounts and putting workers' rights to rest, and meal breaks and infant feeding breaks into law.

The Government has introduced a proposed law change to Parliament which it says will ensure employers meet their obligations to pay contributions to their employees' KiwiSaver accounts.

National MP Lockwood Smith says his comments about the party having to swallow dead fish to make the public happy do not mean it has any secret agenda. Last night TV3 broadcast secretly recorded remarks Dr Smith made on Friday at the party's conference.

Wellington, July 23 NZPA - Market volatility is encouraging affluent investors to join up to KiwiSaver schemes, a new survey from KiwiSaver provider ING (NZ) shows.

The Government is going to change the law so employers cannot pay less to employees in the KiwiSaver scheme than to those who are not.

National's leader, John Key, says there will be "some modest changes" to the KiwiSaver scheme if his party wins the election. Mr Key would not give any details today when he was questioned on TV One's Breakfast programme but he said nothing radical would be done.