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Financial Update

The global financial crisis has created a lot of negative news. A bright spot is the big increase in interest in socially-responsible finance. Two of our investors in Europe - Triodos Bank and GLS Gemeinschaftsbank - are seeing huge growth as people look for alternatives to traditional banks.

Savings on track

Total savings stood at $14.0 million at the end of July. We're satisfied with this at the moment. It's close to the level when we joined the Government Deposit Guarantee Scheme. Membership of the scheme provides reassurance to depositors but it is expensive for Prometheus should we push for growth and so we are watching how this is likely to develop.

Lending slips back

Loans are now $7.9m at the end of July, down from $8.6m at the start of the year. This is to be expected with the recession and greater caution people are showing towards new projects. We continue to look for new opportunities to lend and welcome applications from soundly based projects with good security.

Outlook

It hasn't been easy to be a finance company over the last year or so. A third of them have disappeared and this was mainly before the credit crisis. We're pleased that we've stayed steady and stable during that time and we're encouraged by the increased interest in socially-responsible finance in New Zealand.