Financial Services Council comment on FMA & RBNZ Review

The Financial Services Council acknowledges the release of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank (RBNZ) review into the response of life insurers’ to the Conduct and Culture Review process, and the strong message that faster progress is needed.

“It is clear that as a sector we need to do more and do it faster to improve identified issues especially in relation to legacy products, customer communications, and product design”, said Richard Klipin, CEO of the Financial Services Council.

“Conduct, culture and ensuring great consumer outcomes is paramount. Improvements across the sector remain a work in progress and this latest review from the FMA and RBNZ demonstrates that.

“Individual members will now work through their specific issues raised by the FMA and respond appropriately with steps to rectify them.

“ It is important to note that there is a lot of work going on across the sector in addition to the regulator processes to improve culture and conduct. This includes the development of an FSC code of conduct, ending overseas conferences and other soft commissions, and strongly supporting the progression of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act.

“Good progress has been made in recent months but we need to continue to work with urgency and focus to build the trust of stakeholders and to ensure we are serving New Zealanders in a fair and transparent way.

“We expect strong scrutiny on us as an industry until we get this right and I’d like to thank the FMA and the RBNZ for their work on this report.

“We are committed to building a sector that has good customer outcomes at its centre and look forward to continued engagement with regulators and Government on this”, concluded Klipin.

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