Financial Markets Conduct (Restricted Schemes – Custodian Assurance Engagement) Exemption Notice 2020

Summary:

The notice exempts certain custodians of eligible restricted schemes from the requirement to obtain an assurance engagement. View the Financial Markets Conduct (Restricted Schemes - Custodian Assurance Engagement) Exemption notice 2020 on the Legislation New Zealand website. 

A scheme will be eligible scheme where—

• its custodian is a body corporate that directly holds all of the scheme property; and
• the custodian or all of the custodian’s directors are trustees of the scheme; and
• all administration of the scheme with respect to the holding of scheme property, and all keeping of scheme property records are contracted to a single, New Zealand-based administration manager; and
• no more than 5% of the scheme property consists of investments falling outside particular New Zealand, Australian and European asset classes.

For the custodian to rely on the exemption, the administration manager must—

• provide the custodian with regular reports; and
• obtain an assurance engagement; and
• prepare a certificate confirming various details regarding the administration manager’s role, the scheme’s bank accounts, and the investment of scheme property.

The assurance report and certificate must be given to the custodian and copies provided to the FMA. If the assurance report is qualified then the custodian won’t be able to rely on the exemption again until certain steps have been taken to resolve the reasons for the qualification or the custodian has obtained an assurance engagement for a subsequent period.