News Round Up

Minister speeds up introduction of new adviser rules, Dorchester to sell Equity. Comment: Supporting advisers.

Monday, August 27th 2007, 7:00AM

The Minister of Commerce has indicated that the introduction of new rules for advisers may come into effect sooner than planned.

She says a new set of rules are being drafted by a private legal firm and a first draft has already been sent out for consultation.

Earlier the rules were due to be introduced around the end of the year, however this maybe brought forward following the collapse of several finance companies and the role advisers' have had in this market.

She says giving less time for the industry to get ready for the new rules isn't a problem as they had been well-flagged.

Dorchester to sell Equity

Listed company Dorchester has said that it intends to sell its investment advisory business Equity, based in Auckland and its associated investor website Moneyonline.

Equity is the advisory firm established by Phil Briggs many years ago, it is now run by John Commins who started Moneyonline.

Dorchester chief executive Andrew Walker says no timeline has been set, rather the decision has been made to sell the assets.

The review has also concluded Dorchester will stop lending in the Auckland used car market, sell some non-core assets and close some sub-scale operations.

Dorchester will focus on savings products, home equity release and non-consumer related finance activities.

COMMENT: Supporting advisers
One of the things which perplexes me at the moment is why advisers aren't out their defending themselves. Currently they are taking a pretty big hit in the mainstream media - in my view unfairly. [READ MORE].

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