8 June 2012
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has today released its final
guidance note for issuers, directors and advisers on Effective
Disclosure.
Following publication of the revised draft guidance in April, FMA
has engaged with industry and consumer groups and received 40
submissions, which were overwhelmingly positive.
FMA Head of Primary Regulatory Operations, Sue Brown, said the
final guidance note will improve the quality, accuracy and
relevance of the information provided to investors by
issuers.
"We have refined the guidance in response to the highly
constructive issues raised by submitters in the second round of
consultation. We hope that issuers and their advisers now have a
clear understanding of how the guidance applies to their disclosure
documents, and FMA's expectations," said Brown.
"We encourage issuers to work with us to improve the quality of
disclosure information, and to ensure potential investors and
financial advisers can turn to disclosure documents for clear,
concise and effective information."
FMA will start using the guidance note as part of its risk based
assessment of offer documents for new issues from 9 July 2012, and
for continuous issues, from 1 January 2013.
"We look forward to working with industry as they start to align
their documents with the guidance," said Sue Brown.
"This is about increasing the levels of informed participation in
the markets, which contributes to capital growth, which is good for
the economy."
The guidance note can be found here.
FMA's response to the key themes raised by submitters in the
second consultation round can be found here.
A full list of non-confidential submissions can be found
here.
Ends
Contact:
Tony Reid on 021 739 052 or tony.reid@fma.govt.nz