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NZ financial industry urges further regulatory reform

A survey of the NZ financial services sector reveals regulatory hurdles continue to obstruct the free flow of financial services and products between NZ and Australia.

A Financial Services Institute of Australasia (Finsia)/Roy Morgan poll of Finsia’s NZ members found more than half the respondents find it hard to conduct trans-Tasman business due to concerns about regulation.

In regard to the marketing or packaging of general insurance products, 58% said trans-Tasman trade is a difficult process. A further 2% rated it very difficult.

Just 5% said the process is very easy, though 35% rated the process as easy.

IBANZ CEO Gary Young told insuranceNEWS.com.au that while differences in the regulatory environment between the two countries may be declining, there are still barriers from a NZ perspective.

“As similar as NZ and Australia are, there are many subtle but very significant differences in business in attitude and approach,” he said. “These will always make it challenging to operate business from one country into the other.”