Fund management report canned

Fund managers can stop holding their breath waiting for the Securities Commission's report on practices within their industry - it's officially been canned.

Wednesday, January 23rd 2002, 12:34AM

Securities Commission chief executive John Farrell confirmed yesterday that the commission decided just before Christmas not to produce a report on fund management practices.

Two years ago the commission sent a questionnaire to fund managers requesting a large amount of information on how the industry operates.

The review was designed to help develop a more informed market, and to provide authoritative data on the industry and its practices. With this information the commission would then be better able to compare what's happening in New Zealand with practices in other jurisdictions.

The commission has been promising to release its report on several occasions but has kept putting it off. Last year it indicated the report would be out early in 2002.

The delays have caused some concern within the industry, as they were interpreted as meaning the report was either going to be bad for the industry or it would be used as a tool to promote the idea of some form of regulation.

This feeling was amplified as New Zealand is one of the only countries that doesn't have a regulated money management industry.

Also, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) which New Zealand belongs to has fund manager regulations as one of its cornerstones.

Commission chief executive John Farrell says a draft report was written, but it was not up to scratch.

It is understood that the report was didn't go anywhere and offered few, if any, recommendations.

Farrell says the commission decided not to proceed with the work because the amount of information gathered was too big to draw together on the commission's resources, and some of the information gathered was now out of date.

Farrell says the commission has no plans to promote the idea of regulation of fund managers.

Now the report has been canned the issue of fund management practices is no longer on the commission's joblist.

More stories:

Fund management practices come under scrutiny
Regulation of fund managers on the cards?

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