A New Zealand regulator has labelled issues and behaviour highlighted at the Hayne royal commission “truly extraordinary”.

Financial Markets Authority (FMA) CEO Rob Everett says his organisation is still processing developments in Australia and examining their relevance to New Zealand.

“We are determined to play our part in ensuring this unique opportunity to ask the industry and ourselves hard questions is not lost,” he told a conference last week in Auckland.

“We hope this firestorm will result in customer-centric conduct being permanently embedded within the culture of the financial sector. But we know it won’t happen overnight.”

The FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand are completing a conduct and culture review examining governance, conduct risk management, customer focus and remediation.

Mr Everett says there is wide variance across companies and within organisations, and the FMA is frustrated “in places” with the slow pace of change as regulatory and customer expectations shift.

“That frustration will manifest itself over time as we become less understanding and less tolerant of firms that talk a good game but don’t put the hard yards in to make sure it happens,” he said.