FAMNZ dead

FAMNZ, which is an offshoot of the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA), says it has been unable to recruit enough members to be financially viable in New Zealand.

The writing has been on the wall for some time. FAMNZ has not appointed a New Zealand head after the inaugural appointment, Leigh Hodgetts, left after a year into the role.

Likewise, FAMNZ appeared to be a project spear-headed by FBAA chief Peter White. He announced recently that he was retiring.

In a release, FAMNZ says, it was established "to provide world-class expertise specifically for our sector in the areas of professional development and support, and to help increase market share through better advocacy and engagement with regulators, lenders, and consumers."

It claims "these goals were being achieved, and the need for strong industry representation remains, unfortunately membership numbers have not reached the level required to make FAMNZ financially sustainable."

It also takes a dig at other associations; "We also understand the hesitation of other advisers to join, because they haven’t been represented well in the past. But the reality is that without broad support, FAMNZ is unable to continue in its present form as a member-based industry body."

Despite shutting up shop FAMNZ says it is still committed to supporting advisers, and it will "continue directly working with regulators and government to help advance and improve the industry for the benefit of the entire Australasian region."

"We knew the market was different here, and that unlike Australia, advisers didn’t have to be a member of a professional organisation to deal with aggregators and lenders.

:However recent changes in licencing and commission structures by some lenders have made the market even more difficult for advisers, and require even more time and finances that we can no longer commit." the association says.

"We are proud of our significant achievements even in this short time. Our engagement with regulators including the Commerce Commission has directly resulted in better outcomes for advisers and consumers."

FAMNZ claims to have raised the public profile of mortgage advice and educated mainstream journalists. It says most journalists "were unaware of how our industry operated or what we offer consumers."

"Our extensive media engagement and public promotion of advisers through the media has helped more journalists and consumers better understand the benefits of using an adviser for lending and mortgages.

Comments from our readers

On 2 June 2026 at 11:40 am Amused said:

Not sure that FAMNZ ever did their homework when deciding to form another professional body in New Zealand for mortgage advisers. It seems they were an outfit from Australia that decided they wanted a piece of the adviser market in New Zealand and now things haven’t gone as planned for them. Essentially, they arrived too late to the party. It’s worth remembering FANZ is an amalgamation of both the PAA & NZMBA who made the decision to merge their two organisations based in part on lack of membership. FANZ’s former chief executive Katrina Shanks was quoted in late 2023 as saying then that she doubted there was room for another association in NZ. I guess the above realisation finally dawned on FAMNZ hence their attempt to lobby the NZ government to make all mortgage advisers be forced to be part of a professional body sighting education standards. Once again, we have had a third party trying to tell the mortgage advisers of this country that we can’t function without their support. How many times are mortgage advisers going to have to listen to the same broken record? A cautionary tale of what happens when you attempt to lobby the government to make membership of your voluntary professional body compulsory. If organisations like FAMNZ were adding real value to mortgage advisers and their businesses, then advisers would never need to be compelled to join them.

On 2 June 2026 at 12:36 pm valkyrie6 said:

We knew the market was different here, and that unlike Australia, advisers didn’t have to be a member of a professional organisation to deal with aggregators and lenders.”

Yeah, the Financial Markets Authority didn’t make membership of an association mandatory for NZ advisers as part of us being licenced to provide financial advice to clients. The FMA didn’t see any value to the NZ consumer in this requirement also been forced on the industry not when advisers are now being held to a much higher standard than in the past.

As far as the aggregator comment goes FAMNZ seems to believe that aggregators must always act as an adviser’s access point to the various lenders. Many mortgage advisers in NZ who have their own FAP licence see no value in us been forced to belong to an aggregator and would welcome the opportunity to deal directly with the lenders thereby cutting out the middleman. Insurance advisers can deal directly with the insurers so the same needs to happen also to the mortgage adviser industry.

On 2 June 2026 at 5:40 pm TTR said:

"Our hope is that others across the industry will build on what we have started. New Zealand advisers deserve nothing less. For our part, as mentioned, our work with the country’s regulators and government continues, and we will always be advocates for our Kiwi colleagues."

When FAMNZ talk about their work done with the government, I presume they are talking about their attempts to lobby our politicians to make membership of a professional body mandatory for all mortgage advisers.

How can an organisation from Australia say they are our advocates when they have clearly attempted to force on us that which they have failed to demonstrate through value and relevancy?

Two years after launching the Finance and Mortgage Advisers Association of New Zealand (FAMNZ) is shutting up shop.

Monday, June 1st 2026, 3:04PM 3 Comments

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