NZX welcomes the Financial Markets Authority's (FMA) General Obligations Review, which concludes that by the end of the review period NZX was fully compliant with its obligations under the Securities Markets Act and the Authorised Futures Exchange (NZX Limited) Notice.
The review, the second assessment of its kind by FMA, covers NZX's operation of equity, debt and derivatives markets during the period of 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012.
NZX has made number of key changes to its structure and improvements to processes following FMA's inaugural review last year. This has required significant focus and commitment across the organisation, and NZX is pleased these changes have contributed to achieving full compliance.
Enhancements made during 2012 included a tightly focused regulation team and the formation of a new markets services group, responsible for regulated market operations and customer service. In addition, NZX increased resourcing in Regulation and Market Operations, and put in place new processes, service standards and reporting.
NZX CEO Tim Bennett commentedIn partnership with FMA, we have made solid progress towards strengthening the quality of the operation of our markets, and we are delighted our considerable efforts in these areas are reflected positively in this report.
"Importantly, FMA noted NZX had, to the extent to which it was reasonably practicable, done all things necessary to ensure that each of our Registered Markets and the Derivatives Market was a fair, orderly and transparent market."