Financial Markets Conduct (BGC Partners (Australia) Pty Limited) Exemption Notice 2022

Summary:  The Notice exempts BGC Partners (Australia) Pty Limited from the requirement under section 310 of the FMC Act to have a licence to operate a financial product market in New Zealand, subject to conditions.  The conditions to the exemption (as set out in the Notice) place restrictions on the nature of the market, the types of product available through the market, who has access to the market and in what capacity, and the activities of BGC as operator of the market.

BGC operates a voice-broking service that facilitates the buying and selling of financial products between its clients, which does not fall within the exemptions set out in section 312 of the FMC Act.

The key reasons for granting the exemption (as set out in full in the Statement of Reasons in the Notice) are that –

• BGC’s proposed financial product market is simple in its format, the type of products that can be traded are limited, and the conditions of the exemption ensure that all participants are wholesale investors in accordance with clause 3(2) of Schedule 1 of the Act. Accordingly, the following purposes can be substantially achieved without a licence—
  • promoting informed participation of businesses, investors and consumers in the financial markets;
  • promoting and facilitating the development of fair, efficient, and transparent financial markets; and
• the additional purposes of providing timely, accurate and understandable information to persons to assist those persons to make decisions relating to financial products or the provision of financial services.
• the statutory purposes described above can be substantially met without BGC being subject to licensing requirements, it is desirable to grant the exemption in order to promote the further statutory purpose of avoiding unnecessary compliance costs; and
• granting the exemption promotes innovation and flexibility in the financial markets, by facilitating the establishment of a new financial product market with appropriate regulatory settings