FMA

You're subscribed as [email address suppressed]

View online | Preference Centre

FMA UPDATE

FMA'S ROLE COMPLIANCE CONSUMERS NEWS CONTACT US

FMA publishes Strategic Risk Outlook

Find out more about our seven strategic priorities we will be focusing on over the next three years.

Our new SRO – what you need to know

Simone Robbers, Director of Strategy and Risk, FMA

Happy New Year! We hope 2017 will feel like more of a steady state for many financial services firms – at least in terms of regulatory change.

Today we released our updated Strategic Risk Outlook (SRO) - a timely refresh now the FMC Act is fully in place, and our new funding arrangements have been agreed. With both mandate and resources secured, we can confidently set our strategy for the next few years.

If you’re familiar with the SRO, you may recall that it outlines what we see as risks to the overall objective of fair, efficient and transparent New Zealand financial markets, and the seven strategic priorities we have identified in response. Overall, these priorities have remained consistent in our updated SRO, as the analysis confirmed our view that they are likely to be the most effective in responding to the risks.

We have also identified several developing themes to keep on our risk radar and we hope to discuss and gather perspectives from our market participants on these over the year. These themes include:

The opportunities and threats presented by Fintech and related innovation in financial services: We intend to keep an open, flexible approach to emerging products and new ways of delivering services, and we encourage businesses active in this space to talk to us about their plans at an early stage.

Establishing and responding to our regulatory perimeter: This is complicated by the ability of companies to offer services to New Zealanders from overseas (by phone or online). As we don’t regulate these services we’re focussed on mitigating the potential harm, primarily by warning the public where we see scams operating and raising investor awareness.

Our regulatory perimeter also includes core banking and insurance products that, while not directly licensed or regulated by us, pose a potential risk of harm to New Zealanders. Evaluating and responding to risks in this area will require close collaboration with other agencies such as the Commerce Commission and the Reserve Bank.

The effectiveness of how we deal with these developing themes will depend on strong engagement with our regulated population, market participants, Government agencies and co-regulators.

In 2017 we aim to provide a clearer line of sight between our identification and prioritisation of risks, the regulatory outcomes we’re targeting, actions we take and the costs those actions impose on industry. We’ll also be publishing our annual corporate plan for the first time this year, providing detail on what we plan to do, when and with which sectors of our markets, to deliver on our strategic priorities.

In our next annual report we’ll include an evaluation of how our contribution to confident participation in New Zealand’s financial markets has been balanced against the costs imposed on industry.

We welcome feedback on the new SRO and any of our other documents – you can send this to communications@fma.govt.nz

Simone Robbers

Director of Strategy and Risk, FMA

Reminders

17 March

Consultation closes: Requirement for managers of multiple participant schemes to register participation agreements. Read more.

A guide to the FMA’s view of conduct

This guide discusses why good conduct matters and how high conduct standards support fair, efficient and transparent markets. It outlines our view of good conduct behaviour and highlights the principles we will use for conduct issues.


	More

Pay for your exemption application online

We now accept exemption application fees online. Paying electronically also means your application can be emailed to us at exemptions@fma.govt.nz without having to post hardcopies.

Just remember, if your application and payment is handled by another person on your behalf (eg a law firm), they will be responsible for any subsequent fees.

See our website for more information.

Changing a director or senior manager? You need to tell us.

As part of the conditions as a licensee, you must notify the FMA when you appoint a new director or senior manager.

The new director or senior manager simply needs to complete a declaration form, which can be found on our website.

Once completed, please scan and email it to us at compliance@fma.govt.nz

Please contact us if you have any questions.

New accounting standards – have you started your impact assessment yet?

The new accounting standards for NZ IFRS 9 Financial Instruments, NZ IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers and NZ IFRS 16 Leases are coming. They are expected to significantly affect the financial statements of many FMC reporting entities. See our website.


	More

On the horizon - what's coming up soon

Conduct Outcomes Report

Replacing our annual Enforcement Report, this report highlights the key issues and actions from our enforcement, supervision and preventative activities for the financial year July 2015 to June 2016.

AFAs in New Zealand Report

A snapshot of the financial advice industry drawn from the online returns by around 1800 Authorised Financial Advisers.

Consultation on class exemption for brokers

We will shortly be consulting on a proposed class exemption to allow some brokers to keep a limited amount of their own money in their client money trust account to facilitate settlement of client transactions and reduce the risk of client money shortfalls. If you would like to be alerted to when this consultation opens, please subscribe to our consultation alerts.