Gould Steele and Co gives up NZX participant status to cut compliance duplication

Thursday 1st August 2013

Gould Steele & Co, a Wellington-based boutique financial advisory service, has resigned as an NZX Advising Firm, giving up its formal status to avoid having to comply with stricter compliance rules for advisers.

The firm will continue to offer clients financial advice and outsource settlement and trading to NZX participant firms as it has previously done, though will only be regulated by the Financial Markets Authority.

Managing principal Kevyn Rendell told BusinessDesk the firm made the decision to reduce the duplication in meeting rules for both the FMA and the stock exchange.

"We're a small firm, and two levels of compliance regime adds huge costs to us in terms of financial and resource," Rendell said.

Gould Steel & Co provides financial advice mainly to private retail clients, he said.

The FMA took over some of the NZX's supervisory roles as part of its creation in 2011, which was designed to create one authority overseeing the financial services industry.

That followed the introduction of tighter regulation of financial advisers, who wore much of the blame for putting their clients into the failed finance companies of the last decade.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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