te Heuheu Georgina: Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
te Heuheu Georgina: Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:11966. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (Minister for Courts) 
: 
 I will make some comments on behalf of the Minister of Commerce that I hope will address some of the issues raised by the Hon Lianne Dalziel. The Commerce Committee made a number of changes to the Financial Service Providers (Pre-Implementation Adjustments) Bill to ensure that the bill is legally effective consistent and works appropriately. Obviously the Government supports the changes made to the bill by the select committee to focus the legislation on the areas we want to ensure are properly supervised. 
Part 1 of the bill is concerned with the provisions of the Financial Advisers Act with two exceptions. The changes to Part 1 of the bill in the Minister’s Supplementary Order Paper 146 reflect matters of detail that have been identified by officials and stakeholders as necessary to give effect to the decisions made by the Government and the committee. It also fixes minor drafting errors. The most notable of these minor changes include firstly clarification of how the certification process will work for wholesale clients wishing to opt into the framework for the treatment of wholesale advice; secondly changes to make absolutely clear that retail staff providing advice on credit in the course of a retailing business is not an activity caught by the Act; thirdly clarifying the manner in which obligations may be imposed on qualifying financial entities; and fourthly clarifying that the Act contemplates that investment planning services may be provided to a class of people as well as specific individuals. 
The Supplementary Order Paper proposes two other changes to the bill that are a little more substantive. The first is to introduce a new regulation-making power that allows transitional arrangements to be made in implementing the new regime. In order to ensure there is an effective mechanism for dealing with any transitional issues the Supplementary Order Paper includes a time-limited transitional regulation-making power that enables the Minister of Commerce to authorise supplementary or replacement transitional provisions. This change will help ensure that the need for urgent remedial legislation to deal with transitional issues is mitigated. 
The other substantive change proposed by the Supplementary Order Paper addresses concerns raised by various parts of the sector that the regime does not allow people to voluntarily opt into authorised financial adviser status. I take this opportunity to clarify that the bill does not prevent any person from becoming an authorised financial adviser where that person has met the qualification criteria. However it has become clear that the Act currently does not allow the Securities Commission to authorise a person to provide services solely in relation to category 2 products. To ensure that consideration can be given to allowing authorisation for the provision of this sort of advice the Supplementary Order Paper enables regulations to be developed to allow the Securities Commission to authorise a person to provide any class of financial adviser services. It should be noted that once the bill has been passed it will be possible to address concerns raised about the ability for category 2 advisers to seek authorisation. 
As a final note the other amendments in the Supplementary Order Paper as already referred to are technical in nature and add details needed to give full effect to the decisions of the select committee. Thank you.