The New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA) will be operational in May, a spokesman for the Commerce Minister Simon Power told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

He denied the start date has been delayed, despite suggestions it was to be up and running at the beginning of this month.

“The authority has not been delayed,” he said. “We had hoped to have the FMA running earlier this year, but we never said there was an April 1 deadline.”

The legislation for the new authority passed its second reading in the NZ Parliament late last month.

The spokesman says the third reading will happen later this month.

“The passage of the bill through Parliament has been held up with the [Christchurch] earthquake, but we always expected to have the FMA running by May,” he said.

It is expected the new board for the FMA will be announced this week although CEO Sean Hughes has already been appointed.

The FMA will absorb the Securities Commission as well as the regulatory functions of the Economic Development Ministry and the NZ Stock Exchange. 

No budget has been set for running the FMA, but insuranceNEWS.com.au understands it will be about $NZ25 million ($18 million).

Questions have been raised by industry sources about whether this will be adequate to run the FMA when the Commerce Commission’s budget is about $NZ35 million ($26 million) a year and the Securities Commission’s is $NZ19 million ($14 million).