How consumers interact with the financial services sector: the FMA reveals all in a mammoth report

Investors hunt for ethical funds but are blinded by jargon and take investment advice from friends, FMA survey finds

With only eight months left for financial advisers to complete full licensing, the FMA took the opportunity at a conference in Auckland on Monday to reveal how slow the sector has been in complying with FSLAA (the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act).

Harbour Asset Management has produced its first-ever annual sustainability report in response to what its managing director Andrew Bascand describes as increasing investor demand “that their fund managers pay attention to non-financial risks and focus on ESG aspects”.

The FMA is doubling down on its efforts to get buy-in from fund managers to its value for money report, aimed at ensuring fees and commissions are reasonable and fully disclosed to all members of managed investment schemes (MIS).

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has wasted no time in putting some flesh on the bones of the COFI Act with the release yesterday of a set of six proposed standards for its new licensing regime for insurers, banks and non-bank deposit-takers.

Six months after telling the market it was raising premiums by 6%-7% because it had paid out “materially more” than expected in claims, Partners Life had shed more light on why and how this was done.

AIA New Zealand partners with fledgling online platform to offer its Starter plans.

In what’s believed to be an industry first, the NZ Society of Actuaries has produced a report that analyses account-level data for a large segment of the KiwiSaver market.

The FMA is ramping up its surveillance of so-called “green” funds and other ESG investments to ensure they’re compliant with guidance the regulator published 12 months ago.

Investment advisers – about 600 in total – are being asked for comment on an FMA consultation paper proposing guidelines on the standard and reasonableness of the advice they give on IPOs and listed equities.

Major advances in medical technology and therapeutics over the past 20 years are impacting on life and health insurers, with underwriters struggling to keep pace with the speed of change.

An estimated 90% of businesses registered on the Financial Providers Services Register (FSPR) will not be expressly subject to the COFI regime, according to law firm Bell Gully.

“Cover down, premiums up, risk of falling foul of the FMA also up and now it costs to get out of the industry.”

The financial services sector recorded the highest number of cyberattacks of any industry group in the first quarter of this year, according to a report by CERT NZ, a government-owned cybersecurity business.

Finally, the mystery has been solved.