Minister approves the Code
Commerce Minister Simon Power today approved the Code of Professional Conduct for Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs).
Wednesday, September 22nd 2010, 5:43AM 
4 Comments
by Jenha White
The approval means the Commissioner for Financial Advisers David Mayhew can now determine when the code can come into effect.
"This is a significant step towards the full implementation of the Financial Advisers regulatory regime and the Government's goal to rebuild investor confidence in our financial markets," says Power.
Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) chief executive Peter Lee says it is great news as the Code provides certainty and there are now no excuses for anymore delays in the process.
"It's time to get on with getting authorised."
Code Committee chairman Ross Butler says the Committee is really pleased that despite the due process it has done a really good job and come up with a document that meets all the requirements of the Act.
"We're feeling pretty relaxed that the major part of our job has been done."
He says creating the Code was a bigger job than any of the Committee anticipated because the legislative environemnt changed as it was working.
"I am proud and honoured of the work the Committee has done. We were fortunate we had an engaging group of people in the consultation process to make the task so much easier."
New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association (NZMBA) chief executive Darren Pratley says its great that the Code has been approved and he commends the Committee for its consultation.
"I think the Code is a fair reflection of where the industry and consumers think it should be."
The regime is governed by two pieces of legislation - the Financial Advisers Act and Financial Service Providers Acts.
The two Acts, which will be fully in force by July next year, require all financial service providers - including financial advisers - to be on a public register and, if they provide retail services, to belong to an approved dispute resolution scheme.
The Code of Professional Conduct establishes 18 standards to ensure all authorised financial advisers meet the minimum standards for ethical behaviour, client care, knowledge, skills and competence, and continuing professional development.
The Code is available at http://www.financialadvisercode.govt.nz/
Power says many mum and dad investors have lost large sums of money because of the poor investment advice they've received.
"I'm confident the code will ensure advisers are held to higher standards of competency and accountability."
Jenha is a TPL staff reporter. jenha@tarawera.co.nz
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Comments from our readers
LoooooooL, what a tool.
Sorry guys, you're just easy targets. Owners of now bankrupt finance companies have locked away the mums & dads investments in their "Trusts". You don't need the one Rod and two Marks to tell you that.
The bad news is the one-liners be thrown around by seemingly ignorant Politicians.
Mr Power should celebrate the long-overdue regulations that are finally providing some controls to the NZ financial services industry, and stop casting dispersions over industry subsets...
If Mr Power feels the need to talk about the industry-badness-of-bygone-years, then perhaps he could start with Regulatory defficiencies that created this mess in the first place
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What Power didn’t admit was that many more mums and dads lost even larger sums of money from not even bothering to take advice in the first place. It doesn’t matter how much you regulate the advisers; people are still going to lose money while poor investment statements are being used and the public remains as financially illiterate as at present! Case in point – how many Hubbard supporters invested through a qualified adviser, and how many others simply invested in the good name without advice?