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 Perimeter and Response team, who manage cases referred from the FMA frontline teams where it appears there may have been material misconduct, and consider how best to intervene or respond to identified misconduct. Their remit is broad and as the FMA has finite resources, they are guided by our regulatory priorities to focus their efforts.
Their work is about digging into the facts and making sound recommendations on the use of regulatory tools to protect market integrity and make sure serious or harmful wrongdoing doesn’t go unchecked.
The team generally assess about 30 cases at any one time. The cases deal with issues that cover the FMA’s full remit and include the conduct of financial advice providers (licensed, unlicensed or unregistered) or individual financial advisers, fair dealing cases (covering matters like the bank and insurer self-reported remediation cases), false or misleading disclosures relating to investment offers (such as misleading claims regarding ethical investing or about returns or risks relating to an investment), fraud and scams.
Responses by the team can vary from informal action, like feedback letters, to formal action such as censures, action plans, direction orders, stop orders and cancellation of licences. If a case involves misconduct that is at the very serious end of the spectrum and/or requires specialist investigation skills, the team may refer it to another Response and Enforcement team - Evidence and Investigations - to open a formal investigation. The team also sometimes refers cases to the Police or to other regulatory or enforcement agency (like the Serious Fraud Office or the Commerce Commission).
Within the team there is a wide range of expertise including experience in investigations, chartered accounting, law, private industry, and overseas conduct regulation—giving us the depth and perspective needed to tackle complex challenges and deliver good outcomes for consumers and the market.
If you have any questions about their work you can email [email protected].
