Weekly Wrap: ASIC imports for adviser regulation

Regulation of the adviser sector continues to be the big topic of news this week, with Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel rejecting calls to slow down the passage of the bill.

Friday, August 29th 2008, 5:18PM

This week she made a speech outlining why she feels it should go ahead and as we report here the bill has been moved up Parliament's order paper. The story and our Blog last week have attracted lots of attention, including the minister posting on Phil's Blog. Have a read here. You're welcome to have your say.

We can also report, exclusively in the Weekly Wrap, that although the Securities Commission is unable to do much until the bill is passed, it has already engaged two people to help it get regulations together. Both men, we understand, are from Zimbabwe and at least one of them has come across the Tasman from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

Another related story this week is that the commission has, for the first time, publicly commented on the quality of the new adviser disclosure statements. The commission has given a guarded thumbs up to the quality, and in this story highlights its views and the areas it feels there could be improvement.

There is a mixture of finance company news with some good and some not so-good. Marac has followed South Canterbury Finance and reported that it is holding up pretty well, despite the chaos all around. However, we expect Dominion Finance to report, today or soon, that it is going into receivership.

The other piece of news is that UDC has upped its commission rates for advisers putting money into its PIE funds.

Although we have seen very few changes to home loan rates recently Good Returns expects the Reserve Bank will cut the official cash rate on September 11 and rates will come down again. While there have been few changes to rates, banks are reporting their latest results for the period the June 30. In the Mortgage Centre there are a number of stories telling you how each lender is going.

Our other Insurance News this week is the next practice management piece in our series from the Million Dollar Round Table. It's one of those pieces which provides a little inspiration to help you overcome some of the obstacles in business.

Tower dominates our People section with Health and Life appointing a new head of intermediary distribution and also a new business development manager for KiwiSaver.

The new Good Returns site is building up its coverage of the KiwiSaver market. Our story this week is about three PAA members who have established a website to sell KiwiSaver to the public over the internet. This is a new development and it appears the process is working for them. Have a read of their story here.

We would also like to know what sort of things you, as advisers, would like to read about KiwiSaver. Send your ideas to editor@goodreturns.co.nz and we will have a crack at answering them

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