Gino Zambon, a Wellington customer of Lombard Finance & Investments, the 17th finance company to get into trouble within the past two years, said what a lot of investors must be thinking. It is one of three New Zealand finance companies (the others are Marac Finance and UDC Finance) that have an investment-grade rating from international credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's. McLeod says that South Canterbury Finance is now keeping about two or three times the level of cash it normally holds and he thinks higher levels of liquidity will continue to be important for finance companies in the next two to three years. There will be a good dozen finance companies producing good profits and doing things very well as they have done for years and that will be what's happening in two or three years time. read more