Industry should ignore Nat pledge to scrap CoFi: KPMG

Writing in KPMG's latest quarterly report on the performance of financial institutions, KPMG's risk consulting director Kate Stewart and colleague Malcolm Bruce say CoFi “actually provides opportunity for financial institutions to do what's right for their business, as well as the customers they serve.”

The announcement by National leader Chris Luxon at the Financial Services Council conference last month “created a level of uncertainty into what has been a well-accepted regulatory change,” say Bruce and Stewart, who joined KPMG from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

The CoFi legislation “essentially brings banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers into a regulatory regime that would provide protections for consumers that don't currently exist in New Zealand's regulatory landscape,” they say.

“It's hard to argue institutions should not treat their customers fairly, nor that they should have customers at the heart of the way their businesses operate.”