Young Jonathan: Financial Markets Conduct Bill Financial Markets (Repeals and Amendments) Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Financial Markets Conduct Bill Financial Markets (Repeals and Amendments) Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:13001. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am very happy to stand and speak on the third readings of the Financial Markets Conduct Bill and the Financial Markets (Repeals and Amendments) Bill. They are certainly significant—not only in their size but in their importance in terms of legislation for this country. We know that the backdrop to this was the collapse of the financial markets and the global financial crisis that happened in 2008 and 2009. The fact is that many New Zealanders not only lost their savings but lost their confidence in the markets and also in investment and it dried money up certainly during that period of time. I guess in many regards people returned to bricks and mortar and sought to invest in areas where they had some sense of security which I suppose contributes to some of the housing affordability issues that we face.This legislation has taken what has been termed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rewrite our securities laws. I believe that we have come up with a very coherent and comprehensive set of laws that will be supported I believe by regulation that will work well in the market place. That is so important because we want the market place to be free to be accountable and also to have the effect of being able to attract and release investment from people but into companies.The Financial Markets Conduct Bill is a key pillar in the Government’s Business Growth Agenda. It helps to achieve one of the Government’s keys to building a more competitive and productive economy. It is a very important part of that. This bill—this law when it comes to pass—will promote informed participation of businesses investors and consumers in our financial markets. It will foster fair efficient and transparent financial systems that are crucial to our future prosperity as a country. It is good to see that we have progressed so quickly tonight through these stages—the Committee stage and now the third reading.It is crucial that we ensure that this legislation strikes the right balance between holding people to account while encouraging businesses to come to market. Vibrant financial markets must work for all participants and that has been one of the driving factors behind this legislation. Key proposals in the Financial Markets Conduct Bill have included in Part 2 an introduction of prohibitions on misleading and deceptive conduct generally in financial markets. I think New Zealanders out there generally would say it is a good thing that we have that and would welcome those changes.Part 3 replaces a requirement for issuers to prepare a prospectus and investment statement with a requirement to prepare a single product disclosure statement tailored to retail investors and prohibits false and misleading statements in product disclosure statements. That is very important. It is important that people out there can get something concise but also very informative about the product they are going to invest in. There is nothing like receiving 150 pages and thinking: “That is just so intimidating. I am not going to be able to read through it so I will not try.” There is nothing like receiving a document that is full of jargon and abbreviation as well to confuse people. So these product disclosure statements will be concise clear and coherent to retail investors. I am sure that there will be sophisticated professional investors out there who will not need that level and who will be very happy to proceed with perhaps even what they have been used to. But certainly we want to make information accessible to retail investors.Part 4 strengthens the governance of regulated products. It introduces stricter requirements for managed investment schemes including new duties on fund managers and supervisors and stronger governance requirements.I believe that there is much that can be said and will be said by different speakers in this debate but by and large the Commerce Committee worked on this not only with officials—and I say thank you to them; they did a tremendous amount of work—but also with people in the market place with investors and also with issuers and professionals. There was a tremendous sense of working together to try to find the right solution in this particular area. I believe that we have done a good job that will serve New Zealand well in times to come. Thank you.