Parliament ran out of time on Tuesday long before reaching the bill's position in the debating schedule.

The COFI bill will impose a code of conduct on institutions such banks, insurers or non-bank deposit takers. But it will also cover intermediaries such as brokers and advisers.

This has been criticised as needless repetition, since advisers are already complying with existing law, the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act of 2019 (FSLA).

This administers the FAP regime, which advisers are already facing up to at a considerable cost in time and money.

The Government, though, insists the COFI law is needed.

It passed its second reading in parliament last week and was referred to the next available opportunity in parliament.

It surfaced on the order paper on Tuesday at slot 19 in the running order of topics for debate.

But parliament only got to spot 10 on the list before adjourning at 10pm, and will be busy with the budget later in the week.

As Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, David Clark is responsible for ushering the bill through parliament. An official in his office said the bill would not progress this week, nor did he have a date for when it might resurface.

Parliament is in recess next week, so the matter could still be at least a fortnight away.

Meanwhile the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that critics have been counting on to resolve “defects” in the bill has been circulating .

A selected group of interest groups have seen the paper under conditions of secrecy, and are not talking about it.

However a legal opinion issued by the law firm Bell Gully suggested the SOP would probably dilute, though not remove, financial institutions' duties towards intermediaries.

The COFI bill is supported by Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Maori, but opposed by Act and National.