Page 22 - English-DBINZ brochure-2019

19 Doing business in New Zealand

Section 6
FINANCIAL SERVICES

Financial service providers

Individuals or firms in the business of providing financial services in New Zealand and who are either
ordinarily resident or have a place of business in New Zealand are required to register under the Financial
Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 (FSPA). The register is known as the
Financial Service Providers Register (the FSPR) and registration is an on-line process. The FSPA has
recently been amended to provide enhanced abilities for. Due to the perceived misuse of the FSPR in
recent years (eg FSPR registration made by persons with no, or very little, connection with New Zealand),
the New Zealand regulatory agencies now have the power to deny or cancel registration where they
consider there is no bona fide business carried on in or from
New Zealand.

Financial service providers are generally required to be a member of a dispute resolution scheme
unless they only provide services to “wholesale” clients (eg institutions or wealthy and/or experienced
investors).

Please note – this description sets out information on the FSPA as at the time of writing (March 2019).
The Financial Services Legislation Bill (the FSL Bill) is currently before Parliament which, if enacted in its
current form, will amend the registration requirements under the FSPA. Under the proposed law reform,
the FSPA will require anyone wishing to register on the FSPR to provide financial services to persons in
New Zealand or to be required by other New Zealand legislation to be registered on the FSPR (e.g., by
holding a market services licence under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA)). We expect
that the FSL Bill will be enacted in Q1 of 2019 with the changes to the FSPA to come into force shortly
thereafter (subject to certain safe harbour periods).

FINANCIAL ADVISERS AND BROKERS

The FAA currently governs individuals and firms who provide “financial adviser services”, which are
defined as any of the following:

ə Giving financial advice (essentially, making recommendations or giving opinions in relation to the
acquisition or disposal of particular financial products)