Limited oversight of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has let the watchdog drag its heels on investigations into listed company failures such as CBL Corp and Wynyard Group, New Zealand Shareholders' Association (NZSA) chairman John Hawkins says.
The retail investor group held its annual meeting in Auckland on Saturday, at which Hawkins was re-elected to the role. He planned to vacate the position, but put that off until a replacement was locked in.
Hawkins lauded efforts by NZX management under new chief executive Mark Peterson to improve the core function of the stock market operator, noting the "irony" that while NZX faced "significant oversight", the FMA itself effectively self-reported.
"It publishes many different documents about what it does and how that compares with former years. The problem, as far as I can see, is nowhere are there any detailed performance standards that investors can look at regarding the investigation role that FMA has," he said.
"There are lots of generalities of course, but they allow plenty of scope for investigations to drag on in deepest secrecy. It seems to me that where serious concerns are raised, these disappear into a black hole only to surface years down the track or not at all."
