Category: Blog

Bank Competition Report- Implications for Mortgage Brokers

27 August 2024

On 20 August 2024 the Commerce Commission unveiled its final report into competition in the personal banking services sector. The report’s unsurprising conclusion is…

Updated FMA guidance for custodians

31 July 2024

The Financial Markets Authority has released an updated guide on the obligations of client money or property service (“CMPS”) providers. The guide replaces the…

FMA’s Fair Outcomes Guide – Cygnus Law’s Submission

4 March 2024

The Financial Markets Authority (“FMA“) has released a proposed guide to “Fair outcomes for consumers and markets” (“guide“). The guide includes 7 “fair outcomes”.…

Coalition’s Financial Services Sector Policies

24 November 2023

The National, ACT and New Zealand First parties today confirmed their coalition agreements that will form the basis for a coalition of the three…

National Party proposes significant changes to financial law

17 August 2023

On 17 August 2023 at the Financial Services Council New Zealand conference National Party leader Christopher Luxon announced three significant policies relating to investments,…

New Guidance for Payment Providers and Merchants on Payment Fees

11 August 2023

The Commerce Commission (Commission) has continued to take steps to try to reduce the fees consumers pay for using some types of payment methods…

Significant changes to AML/CFT law coming into force between 2023 and 2025

10 July 2023

Significant changes to parts of New Zealand’s AML/CFT law under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (Act) have been confirmed.…

Financial Advice Service Disclosure Guide

8 October 2020

From 15 March 2021 New Zealand financial advice providers (FAPs) and their financial advisers have new disclosure obligations. Those obligations apply before they engage…

Misleading Conduct by Government Insurer – The Gander Fights Back

13 September 2019

In an important test case (Dodds v Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd) the High Court ruled in August 2019 that government-owned insurer Southern Response…

Introduction to Equity Crowdfunding

23 June 2019

Cygnus Law has published a detailed Guide to Equity Crowdfunding. In this blog I have included the first section, which explains key aspects of…

New Regulations to Address Bank & Insurer Misconduct

6 May 2019

The New Zealand Government has released a paper setting out proposals for further regulation of the conduct of banks and insurance companies. I outline…

Australian Bank Misconduct Inquiry- Implications for NZ

8 February 2019

The Australian Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (ARC) issued its final report on 4 February 2019. The…

NZ’s FinTech Ecosystem

31 January 2019

FinTechNZ recently published the first detailed New Zealand FinTech ecosystem map– The map highlights the high level of FinTech innovation in New Zealand. The…

Proposed Financial Advice Code- Areas for Improvement

14 November 2018

A draft financial advice code published in October 2018 sets out proposed minimum standards of professional conduct for financial advisers and financial advice firms…

Regulatory Innovation in FinTech

25 July 2018

I’ve repeated below an article I wrote on regulatory innovation in FinTech that was published by FinTechNZ in July 2018. FinTechNZ is an industry…

Law reforms threaten New Zealand financial service exports

30 April 2018

This blog post was first published as an article on the business law website interest.co.nz. Proposals are before New Zealand’s Parliament to reform the…

Robo-advice exemption draft published by FMA

17 November 2017

On 16 November 2017 NZ’s Financial Markets Authority published a draft robo-advice exemption notice. FMA is seeking feedback on the notice and related documents…

FMA approves roboadvice for NZ

18 October 2017

The Financial Markets Authority announced on 18 October 2017 that it will allow full robo-advice to be provided in New Zealand. That is, it…

FMA designation important for all foreign exchange dealers

5 October 2017

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority has just published a class designation that is important for all foreign exchange dealers. It comes into effect on…

First successful court proceedings under NZ’s anti-money laundering law

29 September 2017

The first successful court proceedings have been brought for breach of NZ’s anti-money laundering (“AML”) law. The High Court imposed a pecuniary penalty of…

FMA’s first ever Corporate Plan highlights new initiatives

30 August 2017

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) published its first ever corporate plan (CP) in August 2017. The CP sets out FMA’s planned regulatory activities…

Attributes of Successful Fintech Start-ups

4 August 2017

Developments in technology and regulation are making it ever easier for FinTech start-ups to challenge (or partner with) stodgy incumbents and to create wholly…

FMA’s Roboadvice Exemption – Cygnus Law’s Submissions

24 July 2017

Cygnus Law has made submissions on the FMA’s June 2017 proposal to use its exemption power to permit true “roboadvice” to be provided to…

FMA’s Roboadvice Proposal- NZ’s First Regulatory Sandbox?

28 June 2017

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has proposed a change to law to allow full roboadvice to be provided on some investments and other…

Proposed FMA restrictions on “investment companies”

22 February 2017

Cygnus Law has made joint submissions on the FMA’s proposed restrictions on the use of “investment companies” in New Zealand. The submissions address a…

NZ FinTech in 2017- make or break?

23 January 2017

2017 is likely to be a key year for FinTech development globally. NZ has introduced initiatives to support FinTech but is falling behind other…

Robo future for risk insurance advisers

9 November 2016

Below is an article I wrote that was published on NZ’s Good Returns website. Roboadvice for risk insurance advice is less developed than for…

Being a Crowdfunding Investor

26 August 2016

Below is a blog post I wrote for PledgeMe on 25 August 2016 about what to expect as an investor in an equity crowdfunded…

Crowdfunding Regulation: How Much Can You Raise?

9 June 2016

Equity crowdfunding was conceived as a way for early-stage ventures to raise capital in their home markets. Few early-stage companies can afford the time…

Unsupervised NZ building societies- law reform proposal

19 February 2016

In January 2016 Cygnus Law made submissions to MBIE proposing changes to law to address the problems presented by unsupervised NZ building societies.* The…