OECD's energy agency calls for more renewables in transport, farming by National Business Review

Along with vitriolic remarks from US Senator John McCain about US President Donald Trump, the Munich Security Conference in Germany set up a handful of important sideline meetings. Vice-President Mike Pence told Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Washington was ready for a new start in relations between the two countries.

Read more ($):https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/trumps-beltway-cooling-words-munich-and-epa-head-confirmed-ns-p-199733

Kiwibank says its lift in mortgage market share is thanks to its new shareholders. The bank lifted its share of the mortgage market for the first time in a year even as net profit dived 11% to $63 million for the six months ended December.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/kiwibank-thanks-nz-super-acc-lift-mortgage-market-share-jr-p-199752

Council rates will soar from $1 million to $2.6 million a year for a global hotel chain under mayor Phil Goff’s plans to raise $30 million from the accommodation sector to partly fund the city’s growth agency Ateed.

Read more ($):https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/hold-enormous-auckland-council-rates-increases-hotels-motels-pay-ateed-sl-p-199745

With the phrase “a party of progress, not protest,” Maori Party president Tuku Morgan heralded the deal between his own party and Hone Harawira’s Mana Party yesterday.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/election-2017-maori-mana-deal-fragile-important

A major credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has declined to upgrade New Zealand's credit ratings despite the economy and the government’s performance being better than expected.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/editors-insight-fitch-blames-housing-bubble-declining-credit-upgrade

Harmoney has launched into Australia, where it faces greater competition to get a slice of the peer-to-peer lending pie.

Read more ($) https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/harmoney-launches-australia-faces-competition-cs-p-199747

Australian actress Cate Blanchett is the voice behind virtual assistant Nadia, the first major implementation of the Baby X intelligent, emotionally responsive avatar technology developed at the University of Auckland.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/what-does-cate-blanchett-and-kiwi-ai-startup-have-common-fr-p-199662

Based on the information currently to hand, Spark and 2degrees are unlikely to succeed in their attempts to legally challenge the proposed Sky TV-Vodafone merger.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/sky-tv-vodafone-merger-competition-lawyer-rates-odds-success-sparks-last-minute-legal

"Tip of the hat to Stephen Hudson for getting a story in the Herald about his Trade Me listing for Shopping Ltd, a company whose most notable asset is the URL (website address) shopping.co.nz. Good publicity skills."

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/10m-shoppingconz