Many in the advisory industry (if not everyone) has in their diary the date next year when new rules around adviser regulation kick in.
One of the emerging problems is that with the current rate of progress there is an increasing chance that the officials won’t hit the date.
One of the final pieces of legislation the previous government passed was the Financial Advisers Act which set up the framework for the new regime. The plan is that a committee of industry people would then draw up the regulations.
The problem is that this committee can’t be appointed until a Commissioner of Financial Advisers has been appointed.
The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) started looking for a commissioner late last year, but as first revealed in ASSET Magazine, it has been unable to find a suitable candidate for the job. (One view on the person required is here).
MED is still looking and it is unclear when someone will take up the job.
Part of the dilemma is that the commissioner has one key thing to do when he or she gets the position and that is to appoint the committee to draw up the regs.
Then there is little to do till the regs come into effect.
(We know the rhetoric from this government about cutting the number of public servants, but hopefully that is not the reason why we wait for a commissioner).
So no commissioner, no committee, no regs.
I have it on good authority that there is still enough time to meet the deadline as long as the committee is up and running by the middle of this year.
However, considering a committee appointment process is likely to be reasonably bureaucratic (therefore slow) one can surmise that mid-year is going to be a push.
It’s time we got a commissioner – even an interim one – to get the ball rolling or that there is a change in the process so the regs can be drawn up. The last thing we want is a rushed process where there is insufficient time for the industry to discuss and debate the rules they are going to play under.
