NEW ZEALAND – The effects of the credit crunch have now extended to one of the biggest New Zealand lessors, Custom Leasing, owned by GE. Custom Leasing said it won't be offering any new leases for the foreseeable future, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper. 

Custom Fleet said its moratorium on new leasing in both New Zealand and Australia is short term. It will continue to service existing leases, but said the volatility of world credit markets means it can't say when things will return to normal. 

Custom Fleet is a subsidiary of GE Commercial Finance, a sister company to GE Money, which announced last week it was cutting jobs and pulling back from home lending and car finance on both sides of the Tasman. GE Money said the moves were a result of the international credit crisis. It relies heavily on the wholesale funding markets, where money is now scarce and increasingly expensive.