The Financial Services Council (FSC) has nailed down the main program for its 2021 annual conference, designed to hammer out the key political and regulatory issues of the times.
Last week the FSC revealed the final main-stage events to be headlined by Finance Minister Grant Robertson on the opening morning as opposition MPs Andrew Bayly and Todd McClay take centre-stage the following day.
Commerce Minister David Clark caps off the politco-action with the sought-after pre-dinner speaking spot at the FSC gala event.
Meanwhile, Financial Markets Authority (FMA) chief, Rob Everett, leads the regulatory conversation on day one followed by Reserve Bank of NZ deputy governor, Geoff Bascand, 24 hours later.
Richard Klipin, FSC chief, said the upfront conference focus on politics and regulations reflected a raft of legislative changes washing over the sector.
Klipin said as well the recent introduction of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act (FSLAA) the industry was bracing for the looming introduction of the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment law – aka COFI – among other items such as the default KiwiSaver changeover scheduled for this December.
“While the regulatory changes have led to innovation across the industry, it’s also taking up a lot of bandwidth in many firms,” he said.
Badged under the ‘ReGenerations’ title, the conference main-stage events also cover a post-COVID big picture rethink of NZ, the launch of a new FSC diversity initiative and a closing keynote from refugee-cum-citizen, Mitchell Pham.
Final details of the three work-stream and specialist pathway sessions – covering KiwiSaver, investments, insurance etc – would be released this week, Klipin said.
As per recent years, the FSC conference will also host industry innovators via a fast-pitch competition along with the option for a more leisurely stroll down ‘tech alley’. This year the industry get-together has added a new ‘marketplace’ side-hustle to showcase local-made products from outside the narrow confines of financial services.
The two-day event is set down for September 22-23 at the Auckland Cordis Hotel: further details are available at the ReGenerations website.
Later this month, the FSC also plans to release another in its series of research papers produced in association with Australian firm CoreData, this time tackling the tricky issue of home-ownership among younger New Zealanders. ‘The rental generation’ report is due for launch on August 17.
In June the FSC published a study probing the use of retail investment platforms titled ‘The rise of the digital investor’.