Financial Markets Conduct (BGC Partners (Australia) Pty Limited) Exemption Notice 2023

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 and functionality of the market, the types of products available through the market, who has access to the market and in what capacity, and the activities of BGC as operator of the market. The Notice also imposes detailed reporting requirements.

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

• BGC’s financial product market is simple in its format, the types of products that can be traded are limited, the conditions of the exemption ensure that all participants are wholesale investors in accordance with clause 3(2) of Schedule 1 of the Act, and the FMA will receive detailed reporting. Accordingly, the following purposes can be achieved without a licence –
  • promoting informed participation of business, 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

Download the Financial Markets Conduct (BGC Partners (Australia) Pty Limited) Exemption Notice 2023, PDF