01 February 2012 7:24am

Some banks are withholding payments to car dealers pending a resolution of the problems with search functions on the new Personal Property Securities Register. These continued into the second day of operation yesterday.

Other commercial transactions are also being affected, such as the sale of new and second-hand cars where the buyer wants to trade in their existing car (this is around half of all car sales).

More valuable transactions may also be affected. One investment bank manager posted on Twitter yesterday that "we have several deals pending. This is delaying...