Financial advisers’ ability to operate across Australia and New Zealand without needing further approvals is a step closer, according to the Trans-Tasman Outcomes Implementation Group biannual report.

The report says New Zealand’s financial adviser regulatory regime introduced last July resulted in mutual recognition of licensed individual advisers in both directions ahead of schedule, with work under way to extend recognition to corporations and other legal entities selling financial advice.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the NZ Financial Markets Authority are examining the issue, with a technical standard expected by the middle of this year.

The arrangement will increase competition and eliminate transaction costs for financial advice, according to the report, which says work is also under way for insurance regulation to be better co-ordinated.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Bernie Ripoll says most of the short-term single economic market outcomes have been completed, with medium-term outcomes expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

He says the capacity for both countries to deal with issues such as superannuation, funds, markets, investments, taxation and retirement incomes are all under discussion.

Mr Ripoll says the trans-Tasman initiative also feeds into the Asia Region Funds Passport, which aims to extend Australia and New Zealand’s fund management reach to financial services in Asia.

New Zealand Commerce Minister Craig Foss says there has been “substantive progress” in the quest towards a seamless trans-Tasman business environment in the past six months, with the focus now on achieving more complex goals.

The Trans-Tasman Outcomes Implementation Group was established in 2009 to develop cross-border economic initiatives between Australia and New Zealand.