Property Industry Leader Granted FMA Licence

4 March 2016

Property Industry Leader Granted FMA Licence

Oyster Group is one of the first in the commercial property industry to be granted a Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) licence by the Financial Markets Authority.

Ranked in the top tier of New Zealand commercial fund and property managers, Oyster provides professional property and funds management to retail, office and industrial property owners and investors. The Group has strong specialty focus in the areas of retail investor property syndication, retail property management and leasing and facilities management.

Under the Financial Markets Conduct Act, every non-restricted and registered MIS must have a licenced manager because a MIS pools money from a number of investors who rely on the investment expertise of the scheme manager.

Oyster’s chief executive officer, Mark Schiele, says the requirement for all managers of investment products to be licensed will lift industry standards and improve confidence in markets and outcomes for consumers and investors alike.

“This is a major step up in the regulation of the financial markets. The hurdle to licencing is set high and will weed out those operators who don’t have the skills, staff and robust processes required to be a licenced manager. Ultimately, this can only increase the quality of the managers which remain.”

He says for existing and new investors the most visible change will be with the introduction of new offer documents.

“Investment Statements and Prospectuses are replaced by a single Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). The PDS will present information on offers and investments in a structured and investor friendly format. A lot of the information will be presented in tables which will allow for easy comparison with other financial products. This is a positive move which should make reading offer documents an easier and more informative task.”

Managers of investment products are the last of the financial service providers to be licenced, with financial advisors and statutory supervisors having already completed the process.

Schiele adds that the process to get licenced is not a simple one. The application requires the manager to show that its staff and directors are fit and proper persons to manage investment products and that they have the experience required to do the role effectively. Business processes and compliance programmes have to be put in place to demonstrate that the business has the ability to comply with the legislation and manage investments effectively.

The manager is required to report on compliance issues regularly to the Statutory Supervisor for each Scheme and to the Financial Markets Authority.

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