Professional Advice Special Interest Group Networking Event - FMA's Access to Advice

FSC members in the Professional Advice community were invited for a Special Interest Group Networking Event where they delved into identifying opportunities to improve New Zealanders' access to financial advice.

The Financial Markets Authority – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko (FMA) has published the findings of its comprehensive review into New Zealanders’ access to financial advice.

Following on from the review, the FMA engaged with financial advice providers and the wider sector to find practical ways to improve accessibility and ensure regulation supports innovation and good consumer outcomes. 

Samantha Barrass, Chief Executive of the FMA, shared the Authority’s perspective on the access to advice report and what matters now. This was followed by a themed industry discussion.

Photo gallery:

Speakers:

Kirk Hope (Welcome)
Chief Executive Officer, FSC

Kirk Hope is the CEO of the FSC. As the voice of the industry, he heads the financial services body of 110+ members, who include the major insurers in life, health, disability and income insurance, fund managers, KiwiSaver and workplace savings schemes (including restricted schemes), professional service providers, and technology providers to the financial services sector.

With over 20 years of leadership experience in business and financial services, he leads the FSC vision to grow the financial confidence and wellbeing of New Zealanders through work in policy, advocacy, financial literacy and strong collaboration between the financial sector, government and regulators.

Before joining the FSC, he served as the CEO of Business NZ for nine years, where he was instrumental in advocating for business interests across New Zealand. His career includes significant roles as CEO of the New Zealand Bankers’ Association and Executive Director of the Financial Services Federation.

He holds a Master’s degree in law, focused on regulation of financial services, and an Honours degree in Political Science.

Samantha Barrass (Keynote)
Chief Executive Officer, Financial Markets Authority (FMA)

B.Com (Econ), BCA Hons (Econ), MSc (Econ)

Samantha first arrived in New Zealand at the age of 7 with her parents and sister from the UK. She is a dual New Zealand / UK national. She grew up in Christchurch and attended Christchurch Girls’ High School before attending the University of Canterbury (B.Com (Econ) 1987) and Victoria University of Wellington (BCA. Hons (Econ) 1988).

She joined the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as an economist in 1988. In 1993 she moved to London to attend the London School of Economics where she was awarded an MSc in Economics. In 1995 she joined the Financial Services Authority in London (now the Financial Conduct Authority) which was responsible for the prudential and conduct of business regulation of the UK financial markets. She served successively as an Economist, a Supervisor in the Markets and Exchanges Division and a Manager in Conduct of Business Regulation.

Between 2005 and 2009, Samantha was a Director at the London Investment Banking Association where she worked on behalf of investment banks to develop and implement strategic advocacy programmes with the UK, EU and other national governments and national and international regulatory bodies. In 2009 Samantha took her regulatory knowledge and skills from the financial to the legal sector when she was appointed as an Executive Director at the Solicitors Regulation Authority with responsibility for leading the SRA’s work to transform the regulation of solicitors. This was the most significant element of the transformation of the legal services market in England and Wales enabled by the UK Legal Services Act 2007. It included implementing a new regulatory regime allowing for non-lawyer investment into, and ownership and control of law firms.

2014 saw Samantha return to financial services when she was appointed Chief Executive of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. Samantha led the prudential and conduct regulation of a complex financial services sector that primarily exports financial services, and which represents around 25% of Gibraltar’s economy.

This period was characterised by the significant global and EU regulatory reform in the wake of the 2007/08 financial crisis. Between 2014 and 2019 the GFSC secured the confidence of governments and regulators in key export markets that Gibraltar was implementing these reforms in substance as well as form.

During this period the Commission also developed and implemented the first comprehensive international regulatory regime for firms using distributed ledger technology to hold and transfer value. These successes required strong connections with regulators in other markets, particularly in the UK and Europe but also further afield. They also saw the Commission expand substantially in terms of staffing and capability.

When not regulating financial and professional services Samantha tries to find time for her passion for the theatre. Wherever in the world she has lived and worked, she has involved herself with theatre groups, acting, producing, governance and many other of the wide variety of roles needed to support live theatre. In her younger years, this included Wellington and Canterbury Repertory theatres. Samantha has three children who are at university in the UK.

Damian Lawrence (Facilitator)
Principal Consultant, Mosaic

Damian is a Principal Consultant at Mosaic specialising in Governance, Risk and Compliance. He has 26 years’ experience in the financial services industry, including time in large and small life, general and health insurance providers, wealth management, banking institutions and non-bank deposit takers.

He has significant experience in managing regulatory change projects, leading and being a SME for large programmes of work relating to financial advice, conduct, privacy, risk management and health and safety. 

Katie Baker (Panellist)
Risk & Compliance Lead, Apex Advice Group

Katie Baker is the Risk & Compliance Lead at Apex Advice Group, with over 10 years’ experience working in compliance roles in the UK before moving to New Zealand. She oversees advice governance and regulatory risk, bringing a practical, operational perspective to discussions on access to advice. 

Philip Morgan Rees (Panellist)
General Manager, Wealth Management and Advice, Milford

Phil has been at Milford since August 2017 with responsibility for Wealth Management and Advice. He has a breadth of experience at Executive and General Manager level from over 35 years in Financial Services in the UK and New Zealand.

Phil has been immersed in Financial Advice in New Zealand since implementation of the Financial Advisers Act 2008, held responsibility for one of the first Qualifying Financial Entities, has been managing advisers and authorised financial advisers across three business models; trustee business, sharebroker and fund manager and has been the executive responsible for the Financial Advice Provider licence and the advisers at Milford since transition to the latest regulatory regime. Milford provides advice through in person Wealth Management advisers based in its network of offices across New Zealand, hybrid advice through a team of financial advisers supported by digital tools and digital advice. Phil is a member of the FMA Financial Advice Regulatory Panel.

Romil Ghelani (Panellist)
Head of Financial Advice, Financial Markets Authority

Romil has been with the FMA for seven years, focusing on overseeing the implementation of FSLAA and ongoing monitoring of Financial Advice regulations in New Zealand. He has over a decade of experience across compliance, regulation, risk management and financial services both in Canada and New Zealand, originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

He was significantly involved in the Banking and Life insurance Conduct and Culture Reviews, and FMA Bank incentive structures thematic and led the development of the FAP monitoring insights report and FAP Regulatory Returns.