Our response and enforcement function is made up of the teams who assess and address conduct that poses harm to New Zealanders at the more significant end of the spectrum, as well as our specialist supervision teams who supervise, monitor and deal with conduct that applies across different sectors. We are introducing these teams, sharing more about the work that they do as well as the impact they hope their work will have.
This month we are introducing the Market Conduct team, who do exactly that – they focus on the conduct of people and entities operating or participating in New Zealand’s capital markets.
The work of the team goes to the heart of the Financial Markets Conduct Act’s purpose – to ensure that financial markets are fair, efficient, and transparent, fostering public confidence and participation. The importance of their role is also reflected in our recently published regulatory priorities for capital markets – tackling misleading disclosure by wholesale issuers, insider conduct by senior managers and directors, and breaches of continuous disclosure obligations.
They are the FMA’s subject matter experts on trading misconduct investigations, including insider trading, market manipulation, and disclosure issues in licensed markets. They lead regulatory projects and thematic research, focused on conduct in the markets. They craft guidance that helps market participants understand and meet their responsibilities. This week they published their report on shadow insider trading, which reinforces the FMA’s expectations of persons in possession of non-public material information.
They also address fair dealing concerns relating to financial product offers and inappropriate advertising, which are referred through to them from the Investor Information team.
For those wondering how the Market Conduct team can be across all of this, they have visibility of all trades on the NZX and can track trades made by individuals, fund managers and brokers. The team has a close relationship with NZX Regulation Limited (NZ RegCo). NZ RegCo performs the regulatory functions of the NZX, including market surveillance.
Well-functioning capital markets are critical to the health of our economy, and the Market Conduct team plays an important role in ensuring the integrity of the market, which ensures confident participation. If you have any questions about their work you can email [email protected].
