Louise Unger is set to join the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in June as permanent replacement for Paul Gregory, former executive director response and enforcement.
Gregory resigned last December to take up a newly created role as head of investment partnerships for the ANZ NZ funds management shop.
FMA general counsel and head of evaluation and oversight, Liam Mason, has since filled in for Gregory pending a full-time recruit.
Unger has served as general manager credit at the Commerce Commission since 2021 following a more than two-year stint as head of legal, risk and compliance services at Lawyers on Demand.
Previously, she spent more than a dozen years in the BNZ legal team, finishing up as head of operational risk and compliance in 2018.
In a statement, the FMA says Unger “has significant expertise providing legal, risk and compliance services to a range of New Zealand and international organisations, including banks, telecommunications and electricity companies”.
Meanwhile, Gregory formally joined the ANZ team this month amid a new round of investment staff departures at the $33 billion plus fund manager.
Long-time ANZ senior investment executives, Maaike van Tol and Craig Tyson – respective heads of asset allocation, and Australasian listed property – both quit in March.
The ANZ funds business, headed by Fiona Mackenzie, announced a potential investment and administration strategy shake-up last August after signing tentative agreements with both Mercer and BlackRock.
Nothing concrete has yet to emerge from the Mercer-BlackRock plan but it is understood an update is due in June.
Meanwhile, communications specialist, Helen Mexted has been named as inaugural chief executive of the NZ Society of Actuaries (NZSA).
The NZSA sought out its first chief earlier this year as part of a plan to lift the profile of the peak actuarial body.
Scott Lewis, NZSA president, said in a release: “The Society has successfully operated as an effective professional body for over forty years, supporting a specialist group of more than 400 members practicing across New Zealand and internationally. It’s now time to develop and grow for the future.”
Mexted was head of communications for Te Whatu Ora (government health department) until March this year.
She boasts a long comms career in various NZ government and corporate outfits including the Wellington Regional Council, the Ministry of Social Development, Local Government NZ, Public Trust, St Laurence (finance company), Tower Insurance, Contact Energy and BP.
“Helen brings diverse experience in financial and professional services, membership bodies and government, and will help us to work with the industry and regulators to bring a consistent, strong voice to the work actuaries do,“ Lewis said.
Also last week, in a move flagged in 2023, Consilium unveiled a FNZ-powered environmental, social and governance (ESG) tool for advisers using the group’s wrap platform.
The Consilium Wrap ESG Profiler taps into the global FNZ Impact system that in turn “uses data sourced from multiple ESG data providers to measure and review holdings against six preferences including human rights, climate change, corporate governance and waste to landfill”, according to a release.
As well, the new tool can screen out investments linked to “fossil fuels, tobacco, gambling and more”.
“FNZ Impact profiles investments against independent metrics, enabling them to be rated and evaluated against investor preferences,” the statement says. “The solution, in time, will also provide advisers with client reports that help facilitate conversations and review portfolio impacts like total carbon footprint.”
Launched in 2015, the FNZ-backed Consilium platform has grown to about $8 billion in assets under administration sourced from over 140 advisory firms.