Stakeholder confidence rises as FMA modernises regulation systems
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has reported tangible progress in regulatory performance, financial discipline, and stakeholder engagement, according to its 2025 Annual Report and Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Survey released this week.
"This year has seen tangible differences made in the pursuit of our statutory purpose of promoting and facilitating the development of fair, efficient and transparent financial markets,” FMA Chief Executive Samantha Barrass (pictured) said in a media release.
Focus on outcomes, efficiency, and enforcement
The 2025 Annual Report outlines FMA’s core regulatory functions — licensing, monitoring, supervision, investigation, enforcement, and policy guidance — alongside strategic objectives to evolve its outcomes-focused and intelligence-led approach while deterring unregulated or misleading activity.
Key achievements for the year include:
- Publication of its approach to outcomes-focused regulation and the Financial Conduct Report, setting priorities for 2026.
- Increased engagement with industry and consumers through new roundtables.
- Implementation of Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) reforms extending oversight to day-to-day banking and insurance conduct.
- Preparations for assuming responsibility for the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
- Expansion of the FinTech Sandbox to support innovative digital finance products.
- Collaboration with MBIE on capital markets reform and scam prevention initiatives.
- Enforcement actions, including insider trading prosecution over the sale of Pushpay shares.
- Preparations for the Contracts of Insurance Act 2024, modernising insurance contract law.
Barrass said FMA’s focus on financial discipline and cost control had delivered measurable results.
“I am also pleased with results from our emphasis on increased financial discipline, tighter cost controls, and careful reprioritisation of work across the organisation designed to ensure resources are focused on where they deliver the most value,” she said.
The FMA report showed a smaller-than-budgeted deficit due to higher-than-expected revenue and lower overall operating expenditure, with nine out of 12 performance expectations achieved or substantially achieved.
Stakeholder engagement shows improvement in 2025 survey
The accompanying Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Survey reflected stronger confidence and engagement among industry stakeholders, following a decline in 2024.
“After a decline across a number of key indicators in last year’s 2024 EODB survey and a year of hard work and extensive industry engagement we are pleased to see better results from this year’s survey,” Barrass said.
The 2025 survey found:
- 82% of respondents believe FMA’s actions help raise market conduct standards — up from 2024 but still short of the 90% target.
- 74% rated FMA’s communications as clear, concise, and effective, compared with 63% last year.
- 84% expressed confidence in New Zealand’s financial markets, while 87% were confident the markets are effectively regulated.
“We are on track, and aim to continue this momentum, reflecting on feedback received from the survey and from stakeholders throughout the year to further enhance our industry engagement,” Barrass said.
“We have seen positive results for a number of measures relating to communications and engagement.”
Areas for improvement: Systems, processes, and technology
While satisfaction levels rose overall, FMA acknowledged work remains to simplify its systems and licensing processes.
“It is clear, however, that we have work to do in the area of improving our systems and processes,” Barrass said. “This may be impacting somewhat on whether stakeholders agree it is easy doing business with the FMA, although this result has improved to 56% compared to last year’s 53%.”
To address this, the regulator is investing in automation and AI-driven tools to streamline operations:
- Simplifying exemption request workflows and automating turnaround times.
- Introducing AI-powered search to improve accessibility on the FMA website.
- Advancing single licensing for entities with multiple licences.
“We are committed to improving and modernising our systems, to uplift performance and support new features,” Barrass said.Stay informed with the latest housing market trends and mortgage insights — subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
