NZX Meets All Its Requirements As The Market Operator – FMA Annual Review

NZX has complied with its obligations as a market operator, a report by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko – has found.

The annual NZX Market Operator Obligations Review, released today, reports on how well NZX is meeting the requirements for its market operator license. The report found NZX met all its market operator obligations during the review period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.

In 2020, NZ RegCo was established to undertake NZX’s regulatory functions, with NZX managing commercial operations. The report found this arrangement continues to mature, allowing independence of functions while retaining strong communication and governance links.

Other key highlights during the review period were:

• further integration of the central risk management functions
• continual uplift and investing in technology systems and resources
• trading platform system stability, key staff retention and robust conflicts of interest procedures.

John Horner, FMA Director of Markets, Investors and Reporting, said: “NZX has made material improvements to its systems throughout the review period. This year’s report shows the NZ RegCo model is maturing, with continued and enhanced independence from the NZX commercial function.

“The FMA encourages NZX to maintain its positive momentum with a focus on key person risk, technology and internal financial reporting capability as areas to help deliver continuous improvement,” Mr Horner said.

The FMA made one recommendation – while it noted the NZX did not experience any market outages during the review period, it should continue to develop its crisis scenario planning to prepare for significant market events.

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