[Weekly Wrap] FMA in the news

This week has been full of news about the regulator - a new chief executive, an annual report and a proposed fee increase.

Friday, November 29th 2013, 1:06PM

by Susan Edmunds

The FMA announced yesterday that Rob Everett would take over from Sean Hughes as chief executive. He'll start on February 3.

Apparently his path may have crossed with that of PM John Key while at Merrill Lynch - Key says his name rings a bell. Liam Mason will fill in under Everett starts in the job.

It also released its annual report this week, which was interesting reading. We reported that the FMA is paying more visits to AFAs, but there was more interest in the salaries revealed in the report.

If we can assume that it is the chief executive who is paid between $500,000 and $510,000 a year, then Everett is on track to earn more than his former colleague Key's $419,300.

At the same time, the FMA wants to increase its hourly rate. It says it hasn't been changed in a long time and needs to increase to $178.25, including GST. Board members' time is more expensive. We have details of the proposal and the fees that DIMS advisers will need to pay if they want to be licensed for class advice here.

Many advisers won't have been able to increase their effective hourly rates for a while but some commentators in the industry say things are set to dramatically improve.

There's been talk of what a boost the state-owned asset sales have been to investment and interest in the sharemarket and we reported here that the market looks good for those who have hung in through regulation.

In mortgage news, it was interesting to see yesterday that the percentage of high-LVR lending being done has dropped dramatically. But the value of mortgage approvals is higher than it was this time last year and higher equity borrowers are picking up where first-home buyers have deserted the market.

Banks are really pushing hard for that lower-LVR space, partly because it gives them more room to take on borrowers with small deposits.

We have new job listings here.

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