Investment News

Government has handed the financial services regulator almost $6.7 million of extra funding in the latest budget to boost enforcement and conduct licensing powers. The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) operational allocation rose from about $71.3 million in the previous fiscal year to almost $78 million for the 2025/26 period. More than $3.4 million of the… [Read More…]

Mint Asset Management founder, Rebecca Thomas, has stepped back as chief of firm’s parent group, Amplifi, with Kirsten Boldarin to assume the leadership position. Boldarin joined Mint early in 2023 in the newly created head of distribution role after more than a decade spent working with a high net-worth investment firm in the UK. Thomas… [Read More…]

The NZX Wealth Technologies investment platform has shifted two new financial advisory clients across from rivals Apex and Consilium with four more queued-up or already aboard. Following a bumper 2024 that saw 11 new clients on-platform, the NZX service confirmed Private Wealth Advisers (PWA) and Fortitude Financial as first arrivals this year. It is understood… [Read More…]

Heathcote Investment Partners founder, Clayton Coplestone, reviews the past and future of financial advice in NZ…   “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Written more than 70 years ago as the opening sentence to the novel The Go-Between, the above quote, somewhat ironically, remains current: nothing stays the same forever;… [Read More…]

Tyler Rosenlicht has seen a lot of airports. And the Cohen & Steers head of natural resource equities reckons terminals in Australia and NZ offer a more pleasurable experience for travellers than most in his home country of the US. In NZ last week at the tail-end of an eight-day Australasian tour, Rosenlicht said the… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has dusted-off more than a dozen let-off notes and product ‘designations’ for tighter scrutiny with some potentially destined for the bin. In a release last week, the FMA identified “14 existing class exemption notices that will expire between December 2025 and November 2026” for an omnibus review process. “Most of… [Read More…]

Global regulators have made a rearguard attempt to rein-in the lawless online financial wild west with a triptych of papers laying out final ‘good practice’ guidelines for policing the digital money-lands. In the three reports published simultaneously, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) takes on so-called finfluencers, copy-traders and ‘digital engagement practices’ as three… [Read More…]

FirstCape has kicked off a long-awaited consolidation cycle with the surprise purchase of financial adviser services and platform business, Consilium. In a move confirmed this morning, FirstCape will acquire all shares in the Christchurch-headquartered Consilium, headed by Australian Scott Alman. The deal remains subject to “various conditions” before completion. Along with the ownership change, Alman,… [Read More…]

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has flagged a KiwiSaver tinker ahead in the 2025 budget slated for this Thursday amid growing fears of cuts to the government co-contribution. In a speech last week, Willis confirmed KiwiSaver was in the frame for adjustments in the upcoming non lolly scramble. “I’m delighted to see how many Kiwis are… [Read More…]

Mercer has added Nikko and Smart to an Australasian equities strategy previously run with Harbour as the single underlying manager. In a note last week, Mercer says following a review “it has been decided to replace the underlying investment portfolio for the Fund with the Mercer Socially Responsible Trans-Tasman Portfolio”. “This MITNZ Portfolio invests in… [Read More…]