FMA Publishes Final Climate Related Disclosures Regime Record Keeping Guidance

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko – has published its final guidance for Climate Reporting Entities (CREs) on meeting their record keeping obligations.

The guidance sets out principles and the FMA’s expectations on CREs for creating, keeping, and maintaining proper records as evidence that climate statements comply with the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMCA) and the Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standards framework. The FMA is responsible for the independent monitoring and enforcement of the Climate Related Disclosures (CRD) regime.

The purposes of climate standards, as set out in the Financial Reporting Act*, are to provide for, or promote, climate-related disclosures, to:

• encourage entities to routinely consider the short, medium, and long-term risks and opportunities that climate change presents for the activities of the entity or the entity’s group
• enable entities to show how they are considering those risks and opportunities
• enable investors and other stakeholders to assess the merits of how entities are considering those risks and opportunities.

By providing investors and other stakeholders with publicly available climate statements that can be relied on, the market will be able to make more informed decisions around where to allocate capital and contribute to the overall aim of the CRD regime.

The guidance was finalised following consultation earlier this year. The FMA received 13 submissions from a range of stakeholders during the formal consultation.

FMA Climate Related Disclosures Manager Jenika Phipps said: “Responses to the consultation was constructive with most submitters supporting the FMA’s overall approach to the guidance. The FMA has made several amendments to the guidance based on the feedback.”

About CRD

The CRD regime will capture around 200 entities, comprising:

• Large, listed issuers of quoted equity securities or quoted debt securities (over $60 million in market capitalisation or quoted debt, respectively. Issuers listed on growth markets are excluded)
• Registered banks, credit unions and building societies with total assets over $1 billion
• Licensed insurers with total assets over $1 billion or annual gross premium revenue over $250m
• Managers of registered schemes, such as Kiwisaver schemes and investment funds, (other than restricted schemes) with greater than $1 billion in total assets under management.

The CRD legislation amends the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (the FMC Act), the Financial Reporting Act 2013 and the Public Audit Act 2001 and inserts a new Part 7A to the FMC Act. Under the legislation, CREs will be required to:

• prepare an annual climate statement in accordance with the climate standards issued by the External Reporting Board (XRB)
• obtain independent assurance about the part of the climate statement that relates to the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions
• make the climate statement available to the public
• comply with record-keeping requirements.

*The Financial Sector (Climate-related Disclosures and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 amended the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMC Act), the Financial Reporting Act 2013, and the Public Audit Act 2001.

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