Disclosure regulations for financial advisers

A discussion document on disclosure regulations for financial advisers has been released for public comment, Commerce Minister Simon Power said today.

"The Financial Advisers Act 2008: Disclosure Regulations discussion document is an important step in the development of the disclosure requirements for the financial advisers’ regime," Mr Power said.

"The public has an opportunity to comment on the information that financial advisers will be required to disclose to clients and how they will do that.

"These comments will help with the development of new disclosure regulations which I hope to have in place by early next year".

Two related sets of papers have also recently been released for comment. They relate to the implementation of the Financial Advisers Act and the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act, which were passed last year.

In the first of these papers, the Securities Commission is seeking feedback on regulating and supervising financial advisers.

The second set of papers was released last week by Consumer Affairs Minister Heather Roy, and covers financial service providers dispute resolution framework.

Mr Power said he was pleased to see progress being made to get the new financial services legislation in place, and hopes there will be a robust response from the public on these discussion documents.

Submissions are due by August 12.

The discussion documents are available at: http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentTOC____41042.aspx