ISI tips industry-wide transformation

Investment Savings and Insurance Association chief executive Peter Neilsen. Photo / supplied

The Investment Savings & Insurance Association, which counts fund managers and life insurers among its membership, is looking to transform itself into an industry-wide lobby group taking in a range of other groups.

New chief executive Peter Neilsen, who replaced long-standing ISI chief Vance Arkinstall in March, told a media briefing in Auckland the ISI's members are keen to focus their spending on industry research and lobbying, rather than paying fees to several organisations.

Members were vote on the proposal at the organisation's annual meeting last night.

The new direction came after extensive interviews with the group's members, and Neilsen said he expects the association will make a decision on whether to press ahead with the shift by the end of the year.

"Our members are not saying we want to cut out spending, they're saying we want to get more impact," Neilsen said.

The ISI is in talks with other association groups, and Nielsen said a tie-up with financial adviser groups was looking promising after that sector of the industry underwent a massive overhaul in the past few years with the implementation of minimum education standards for advisers along with a new licensing regime.

Neilsen said the group didn't want to focus solely on representing product providers, and wanted to attract a broad membership, including advisers at the client end of the chain.

Neilsen also cited confusion between the New Zealand group and another better known ISI, Pakistan's spy agency the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which has been accused of ties to the al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.