A newly launched National Strategy for Financial Capability aims to bring together a wide range of organisations across New Zealand’s financial services sector to help improve financial wellbeing for individuals and communities.
Building on a similar initiative introduced in 2021, the updated strategy offers a collaborative framework for addressing key challenges such as debt reduction, financial literacy, and resilience.
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson (pictured) of Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission highlighted the broad participation from sectors including insurance, government, financial services, and community groups.
“We have more than 900 representatives from community organisations, government agencies, banks, fintechs, and insurance companies joining with financial advisers, financial mentors, debt solution providers, and iwi to undertake practical initiatives within a common strategic framework to help New Zealanders grow their money and build resilience,” she said.
She said pooling resources helps avoid duplication and ensures greater impact.
“Pooling resources and expertise ensures we maximise collective impact and avoid duplication. We can help New Zealanders make informed choices to reduce debt, save, invest, protect what’s important, and select the products and services that will assist them to create a better future,” she said.
The initiative, set to guide efforts over the next three years, focuses on four core goals:
Wrightson described the strategy as a significant step toward fostering financial stability across the country, encouraging stakeholders to access the detailed plan online via Te Ara Ahunga Ora’s website.
“By working together, we can achieve much more than we can alone and make a tangible impact on the financial lives of those we seek to help,” she said.
In parallel, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has outlined its approach to strengthening regulatory oversight ahead of the introduction of the Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) regime in 2025.
Speaking at the 2024 New Zealand Insurance Law Association (NZILA) Conference, Jane Brown, the FMA’s head of insurance, outlined future supervisory priorities.
The upcoming CoFI regime introduces a new licensing system for financial institutions, designed to embed consumer-centric practices. It marks a shift from reactive enforcement to active supervision, giving the FMA tools to intervene before problems escalate.
“It is important that consumers get the financial products and services they need throughout their life, when they need them, and have trust and confidence that those products and services will perform as expected and meet customers’ needs,” Brown said.
The FMA’s enhanced powers will include issuing stop orders, direction orders, and other mechanisms to address risks pre-emptively.
Brown encouraged insurers to align their conduct frameworks with the new regime, which takes effect in March 2025, to enhance trust in financial products and services.
