Conduct of financial institutions regime
MBIE is responsible for administering legislation relating to conduct in New Zealand’s financial sector.
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Financial conduct regime
The Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022 was passed into law on 29 June 2022. The legislation introduces a new regime regulating the conduct of financial institutions that is planned to come into force in early 2025.
Once it comes into force, the new regime will:
- Require banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers (together, financial institutions) to be licensed in respect of their general conduct towards consumers. The licensing regime will be monitored and enforced by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
- Require financial institutions to establish, implement and maintain effective fair conduct programmes throughout their businesses that ensure they meet the requirement to treat consumers fairly.
- Require financial institutions to comply with their fair conduct programme.
- Require financial institutions and intermediaries involved in the chain of distribution to comply with regulations that regulate incentives. These regulations will be able to prohibit sales incentives based on volume or value targets, e.g. soft commissions such as overseas trips, bonuses for selling a certain number of financial products, or leader boards.
Read the Act
Visit the New Zealand Legislation website to read the Act
Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022(external link) – New Zealand Legislation
Visit the New Zealand Parliament website to view the history of the Act
Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill(external link) – New Zealand Parliament
Next steps
The FMA is working with financial institutions to ensure they are prepared for the new regime, with licensing applications planned to open on 25 July 2023.
MBIE is also developing supporting regulations for this regime. Consultation on regulations is now closed (see ‘Consultation’ section below for more information) and MBIE is considering the feedback received. It is intended that these regulations will be made in early 2023, before licence applications open.
The regime will come into force on a date specified by Order in Council. At this stage it is planned that the regime will come into force in early 2025, after a transitional period.
Consultation
In October and November 2022, MBIE sought additional feedback on the supporting regulations for this new regime and the proposed fees, through 2 consultations:
Exposure draft regulations on sales incentives
We released an exposure draft of proposed regulations to support this regime, which prohibit certain volume or value-based sales incentives. This consultation was open for 6 weeks and closed on Wednesday 9 November 2022 at 5pm.
More details, including all the relevant documents, are available on MBIE’s website:
Proposed licensing fees consultation
MBIE also sought feedback on a discussion document containing proposed licensing fees for financial institutions under the regime. The licensing process will be administered by the FMA. Feedback was open for 4 weeks and closed on Wednesday 26 October 2022 at 5pm.
More details on this consultation, including all the relevant documents, are also available on MBIE’s website:
2021 consultation on discussion documents
In April to June 2021, MBIE consulted on 2 discussion documents relating to the regime. The first asked for feedback regarding the treatment of intermediaries, and the second covered the development of regulations to support the regime.
The feedback received from consultation was used to advise the Government on amendments made to the Bill via Supplementary Order Paper, and regulations that will be necessary to support the new regime.
You can find these discussion documents here:
Conduct of financial institutions treatment of intermediaries
Read the submissions made in response to the consultation
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NZAA submission on the conduct of financial institutions regulations discussion document [PDF 275KB]
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NZBA submission on conduct of financial institutions intermediaries discussion document [PDF 304KB]
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NZBA submission on the conduct of financial institutions regulations discussion document [PDF 303KB]
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NZUA submission on conduct of financial institutions intermediaries discussion document [PDF 770KB]
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NZUA submission on the conduct of financial institutions regulations discussion document [PDF 440KB]
Change in control provisions
Once the new regime comes into force, financial institutions will need to hold both a conduct and prudential licence to operate in New Zealand. Provisions within prudential legislation, administered by the Reserve Bank, require a licensed financial institution to obtain regulatory consent from the Reserve Bank prior to any change in control (ownership) of the institution (and, in the case of licensed insurers, a transfer, amalgamation or change in corporate form).
The Act does not contain similar provisions requiring financial institutions to obtain a regulatory consent from the FMA from a conduct perspective ahead of any change in control. In its report on a petition by Mr Andrew Body, the Finance and Expenditure Committee recommended that the Government consider amending the Bill to include a conduct assessment at the point of sale.
Petition of Andrew Body: Protection of the interests of AMP Life's policyholders(external link) — New Zealand Parliament
Although the Government does see potential merit in this option, change in control provisions would require further consultation, policy work and time to develop and are not core to the new conduct regime. They were therefore not pursued through this legislation although they may be considered as part of future work programmes.
Feedback welcome
We welcome feedback at any time about our work on the conduct of financial institutions. If you would like to contact us, please email financialconduct@mbie.govt.nz.
Related documents and information
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022: Consultation on regulations [PDF 146KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022: Consultation on regulations – Minute of Decision [PDF 168KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill: Supplementary Order Paper [PDF 132KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill: Supplementary Order Paper – Minute of Decision [PDF 144KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Financial Institutions) Amendment Bill: Further Policy decisions and regulations [PDF 130KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Financial Institutions) Amendment Bill: Further Policy decisions and regulations – Minute of Decision [PDF 184KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill – Further policy decisions: Regulatory impact statement [PDF 576KB]
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Approval to release discussion documents: Amendments and regulations to support the new regime for the conduct of financial institutions [PDF 403KB]
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Supporting the New Regime for the Conduct of Financial Institutions: Release of discussion documents – Minute of Decision [PDF 205KB]
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Conduct of financial institutions: Introduction of a new conduct regime [PDF 199KB]
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Conduct of financial institutions: Introduction of a new conduct regime - Minute of Decision [PDF 214KB]
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Regulatory Impact Statement: Regulatory regime to govern the conduct of financial institutions – December 2019 [PDF 704KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill: Approval for introduction [PDF 356KB]
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Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill: Approval for introduction - Minute of Decision [PDF 168KB]
Review of insurance contract law
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