Govt slow to close adviser loophole

The government is in no rush to plug a gap in its new adviser regulations that allows advisers with overseas convictions to become registered.

Wednesday, April 4th 2012, 6:00AM 4 Comments

by Niko Kloeten

The issue was highlighted by the case of Bay of Plenty couple Tone and Dennis Munro, who work as insurance agents for American Income Life Insurance, which markets life products for low-income customers.

Last year the Munros registered as financial service providers, only months after being convicted in Australia and fined A$100,000 for lying to investors about rental properties.

Their registration was allowed to happen because although the Financial Advisers Act gives the FMA discretion to consider foreign convictions when licensing Authorised Financial Advisers, it doesn’t have the power to do so for Registered Financial Advisers (RFAs).

“RFAs are not subject to subjective fit and proper checks by the FMA,” a spokeswoman for new Commerce Minister Craig Foss told Good Returns.

“RFAs are subject to limited disclosure obligations, which do not include disclosure of convictions. In light of the reduced compliance obligations they face, RFAs are only permitted to give advice in respect of comparatively simple, low-risk category two financial products.”

However, the issue doesn’t seem to be a top priority for the government, which said it would look at it as part of a wider review of the new regulations, which could be up to four years away.

“A statutory review of the FAA regime will be carried out before 2016,” the spokeswoman said..

“As part of this review officials will consider whether overseas criminal convictions should be made subject to New Zealand banning orders, and whether disclosure of convictions should be made mandatory for all advisers.”

The Financial Markets Conduct Bill will also give the FMA wider powers to seek management banning orders, including cases where a person has been banned from holding positions of management or directorship overseas.

Niko Kloeten can be contacted at niko@goodreturns.co.nz

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Comments from our readers

On 4 April 2012 at 9:05 am Concerned! said:

So criminals can work in the financial services profession in New Zealand provided they only give advice on so-called "simple" products. This is crazy and does nothing to raise confidence in our profession. Besides, define "simple". In my view KiwiSaver is a relatively simple product, yet advice in areas business risk management and income protection can be complex. It's about time the bar is raised and the RFA status in relegated to history.

On 4 April 2012 at 9:34 am BTW said:

The issue is not about disclosure as RFAs are required to confirm (disclose) that they meet RFA qualifications (i.e. no convictions). The issue is about changing the qualification requirements in the FSPA to include overseas convictions - currently the Act only refers to NZ convictions. Its just poor drafting and would be easily fixed.

On 4 April 2012 at 10:20 am BTW said:

Concerned - the Minister's comments are incorrect. RFAs do need to disclose convictions - just not overseas ones.

On 5 April 2012 at 2:49 pm w k said:

SIGH! After all the big hoo haas in the last few years, looks like we're all back to the starting point - no one, including the regulators, is not quite sure what lies ahead. Can't blame the consumers if they have no confidence in the industry.