The committee administers the Code of Professional Conduct for Authorised Financial Advisers, and recently completed an update.

The committee was appointed in 2009 under the Financial Advisers Act and can have between seven and 11 members.

At present, it has seven members, including chairman David Ireland, of Kensington Swan, Professor Dimity Kingsford-Smith, of the University of New South Wales, and Michael Staal, who is joint managing director of NZ Financial  Planning.

It has to have one member with knowledge, experience and competence in consumer affairs, who is appointed for three years, and other people the FMA decides are qualified by virtue of their knowledge of and experience and competency in relation to the financial adviser industry.

The role is on an “as required” basis.

The FMA says the chairman envisages the key work of the Committee over the next three years will involve monitoring the effectiveness of the code against developments in the industry, and then undertaking a full review in conjunction with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment review of the Financial Advisers Act.

FMA and the Code Committee say they are particularly looking for people who have:

• an understanding of the economic, social, legal, financial, and regulatory issues regarding financial advice in New Zealand.
• experience in specialist areas in the financial adviser profession (eg. comprehensive financial planning or insurance) and in other areas such as compliance, ethics or adviser education.
• involvement in investor and consumer protection activities.
• experience in senior leadership roles, within an organisation and in a profession/industry-wide context.

Expressions of interest must be submitted by June 23.