MED provides helping hand for reviewing the Financial Markets Conduct Bill

The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) has collated a table of the 73 submissions it received on the exposure draft of the Financial Markets Conduct Bill (FMC Bill).

In brief, the FMC Bill:

• regulates the offer of financial products for issue (and some offers for sale);
• provides general prohibitions on misleading and deceptive conduct to apply to financial markets;
• makes wide-ranging changes to the governance of financial products and services. These include additional requirements for specific types of managed investment schemes;
• regulates financial product markets and activity on them; and
• makes changes to the liability regime for contraventions of securities law.

The FMC Bill will replace the Securities Act 1978, the Securities Markets Act 1988, the Securities Transfer Act 1991, the Unit Trusts Act 1960, the Superannuation Schemes Act 1989, and parts of the KiwiSaver Act 2006. However, much of this legislation will continue to apply for a period after the commencement of the FMC Bill under transitional provisions set out in Part 9 of the Bill.

The table includes brief MED comments indicating where a change to the exposure draft has or has not been made in response to the submissions, or where further consideration is required. To view a copy of the table, click here.

The MED has also released an unofficial compare version of the FMC Bill, which shows changes between the exposure draft and the introduction version. Click here to view the compare version.

Both of these documents will advance your review of the FMC Bill considerably. For further background material released by the MED on the FMC Bill and its review of New Zealand's securities legislation, click here.

There will be an opportunity to make submissions on the FMC Bill during the select committee process. If the current Government's timeline is kept, this is likely to be in the first quarter of 2012, with a view to the Bill being passed by the end of 2012.

In addition, MED has said that it will continue to consult informally on the FMC Bill over the coming months.

Would you like help with your review of the FMC Bill?

Bell Gully has been actively involved from the beginning of the securities law review and we will continue to be involved in the review of the FMC Bill and any accompanying regulations.

We will provide further updates as we consider the FMC Bill in detail. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like assistance with preparing your submissions for the select committee, please contact your usual Bell Gully adviser.

Enquiries and information

For more information on any of the cases, articles and features in Financial Services Quarterly, please email Rachel Gowing or call on 64 9 916 8825.