Financial literacy key to regulation reforms, says Power

Tuesday 21st June 2011

The key goal of "promoting confidence in our financial markets" has been the driver for the Government's programme of regulatory reform, according to Commerce Minister Simon Power.

Speaking at the Financial Literacy Summit 2011 in Wellington Power outlined the aim of improving New Zealanders financial literacy - to give consumers "the ability to interact well with the financial sector so they're in a position to make informed choices."

He said when this Government came into power in 2008 they were aware serious changes needed to take place to rebuild investor confidence.

"My focus was on putting mechanisms in place to ensure financial market participants were acting with integrity and competence, to ensure that the regulator had the tools to oversee the sector, and to ensure that consumers had access to redress where issues arose - and that they also had access to information so they could make informed investment decisions."

Power said progress towards those goals has been made with the implementation of the financial adviser regime and changes to make KiwiSaver fund managers more accountable.

"In short, this Government has delivered a more robust regulatory regime for financial markets with investors firmly in mind," he said.

"Financial literacy - that is, the ability of consumers and investors to understand financial products and concepts, and to understand how to seek redress if things go wrong - has been an underlying principle of this reform agenda."

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