About half of the forecast entities have not yet applied for a managed investment scheme (MIS) licence, according to Financial Markets Authority (FMA) figures released last week.
In January the FMA told Investment News NZ (IN NZ) it expected about 100 businesses would need an MIS licence to operate post the December 1 deadline set under the new Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) regime.
The FMA data shows 38 MIS managers have been granted with a further 16 in the pipeline, implying a significant number could be dragging their regulation heels.
In a statement the FMA said as the MIS licensing process could take up to three months, applications would have to be in by August 30 at the latest to meet the December 1 cut-off.
Liam Mason, FMA regulation director, said “we were very clear in setting out an appropriate implementation time” at the beginning of the FMC process over a year ago.
“Our experience shows that businesses need to take time to work through the process so we need to engage with a few providers that haven’t started the process,” Mason said in the release.
The current MIS list covers a broad mix of boutiques and financial institutions including most of the big brand names – with the notable exception of New Zealand’s biggest funds management entity, ANZ Investments.
MIS managers should eventually represent the largest of the six licence categories controlled by the FMA. As at last week, the FMA reported it had issued 137 licences across all categories including 51 to discretionary investment management service (DIMS) providers and 22 licensed trustees. A further 40 licences were “in progress”, including the 16 MIS applications.
The FMA release said all MIS managers wishing to offer financial products after December 1 would also need to have all relevant documents and information loaded on the Disclose register by November 30.
To date just 27 schemes (not all of which are MIS managers) have lodged documents on Disclose, with the latest Trust Investments filing last week.
Trust Investments, which manages money on behalf of a range of charities, reported about $250 million under management across its six group investment funds, the Disclose documents show.