News Round Up: September 24

Monday, September 24th 2012, 6:49AM

The reversal of the ban on direct selling has been welcomed, but could have gone further.

Chapman Tripp has welcomed the Select Committee changes to the initial draft of the Bill, which threatened to ban Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs) and Qualifying Financial Entity (QFE) advisers from making unsolicited calls or in-person approaches to promote financial products unless to existing or former clients.

However, Chapman Tripp said the new rules would still prevent Registered Financial Advisers (RFAs) from advising on products including KiwiSaver, other managed funds, shares and insurance policies with a savings element.

“We suggest though that the restriction should apply only to the more complex category one products so that RFAs who are not AFAs or QFE advisers can continue to promote the simpler category two products to the general public.”

Chapman Tripp recommends either amending Section 26A of the Bill so that it applies only to category one products, or passing regulations to permit unsolicited or in-person meetings in relation to simple products by RFAs.

Perpetual Trust misses out on trustee licence - for now
All the main trustee companies have been granted licenses by the Financial Markets Authority, except Pertpetual Trust.

Public Trust and the New Zealand Guardian Trust Company are among nine securities trustees and statutory supervisors to be granted licenses last week by the FMA.

The FMA declined the application from Prince and Partners Trustee Company, five other applicants withdrew during the licensing process and decisions on three further applications are pending.

Elaine Campbell, the FMA head of compliance, said each applicant had to satisfy the regulator that they could effectively perform their trustee or statutory supervisor role.

“In reviewing each applicant, FMA has ensured every director and senior manager is of good character, that they are registered on the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR), that they have the relevant experience, skills and qualifications to do the job, and robust and detailed procedures for ensuring compliance of each supervised interest.”

The other successful licensees are Anchorage Trustee Company, BDO Auckland Trustee Company, Covenant Trustee Company, Covenant Trustee Services, New Zealand Permanent Trustees, Statutory Supervisors Southern and Trustees Executors.

Seventh heaven for Sovereign
Sovereign’s customer relationship team scooped the Insurance Industry award for the seventh consecutive year at the annual CRM Contact Centre Awards.

The judging criteria included responsiveness, anticipating customer needs, getting it right first time, sales knowledge, awareness and valuing the customer.

“We are exceptionally proud of our customer relationship team, to come away with the top award in our industry for the seventh year in a row shows the dedication and focus of everyone involved,” said Sovereign’s chief operating officer, Gavin Dixon, said.

OMF now able to advise on NZ shares
Foreign exchange, futures and options brokerage firm OM Financial has announced it has become an accredited NZX advising firm.
The qualification enables OMF to now offer clients a wider range of financial products.

“In the past we had been able to advise clients on offshore equity markets, but having this accreditation allows OMF to provide the same advice on our home bourse,” said director of financial markets Greg Boland.

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