With the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) taking on more work it is exploring ways to fund those additional responsibilities.
Consultation has started on funding options and levies to enable the FMA to regulate the new financial advice regime and respond to “cost pressures within its current remit”.
The FMA’s funding was last reviewed in 2016. Since then its remit has broadened.
Sharon Corbett, manager financial markets at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), says: “The FMA and MBIE, as the FMA’s monitoring agency, are consulting on proposed options to ensure the FMA’s funding, including its levy settings, is proportionate to its workload.”
The consultation sets out three options for FMA funding. Each option has implications for the level of resource for the FMA and the levies that market participants pay. Feedback is sought on which funding option is believed to be most appropriate.
The Crown currently contributes around 25 per cent to the FMA’s funding. Feedback is also sought through the consultation on how any increase in funding should be split between the Crown and levy payers.
The consultation doesn’t include any additional funding that may be required for the proposed new conduct regime for banks and insurers, and the FMA’s proposed new responsibilities under the insurance contract law reforms. Any additional funding required for these will be considered in due course.
Corbett says the FMA’s widening remit includes preparation for the new financial advice regime which comes into effect June 2020.