Senior Adviser - Market Infrastructure at Financial Markets Authority, Wellington

Mō tēnei tūranga mahi | About this role

We are the Financial Markets Authority - Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) plays a critical role in regulating capital markets and financial services in New Zealand, ultimately providing better outcomes for investors, customers, participants, and for the New Zealand economy.

The Role - Te Tūranga

Our Market Infrastructure team promote and facilitate the integrity of, and confident participation in the capital markets eco-system. We do this by ensuring key infrastructure providers are fit for purpose and comply with their obligations, from designated clearing and settlement systems, to financial product market operators.

As a Senior Adviser you'll provide your expertise and advice for the Market Infrastructure team to provide guidance and expectations of licensing, develop best practice assurance programmes to monitor the compliance of the regulated populations, and to respond to regulatory requests and remit changes. Our work covers a broad range of interesting issues, which can be quite complex and novel, and plays an important role in ensuring resilience of key market infrastructures.

Focus for this role would be on:

• licensing and exemption assessments of financial product market operators, and providing advice to the Minister
• monitoring licensed market operators, undertaking and publishing reviews of compliance with obligations and approving/declining rule change requests. An example of such work can be found here, being the reviews of NZX as New Zealand's largest market operator
• monitoring of designated clearing and settlement systems (joint with RBNZ)
• implementation of the new Financial Markets Infrastructure regime including assessing and finalising designations, information notices and requests and developing a joint monitoring approach with the RBNZ
• licensing and monitoring of Administrators of financial benchmarks

About you - Ō pūkenga

You'll be curious and technically minded with a good knowledge of laws and regulations relevant to the financial sector. You could be an experienced regulator, lawyer or have developed and implemented assurance/compliance monitoring programmes, systems and practices. The transferable skills that make the biggest impact in this varied and stimulating role are:

• ability to quickly and efficiently learn new content and processes
• strong analytical, critical thinking and reasoning skills
• well-developed interpersonal, communication and influencing skills
• genuine motivation for ensuring that key market infrastructure providers are fit for purpose

Why join us? We asked the team…

It's purposeful.  "The work we do really does impact on people's lives and livelihoods - it is important."

"The FMA offers great job satisfaction that comes from working for public interest - it attracts people who want to do really good work. We're making sure the plumbing of the financial system works well - if it gets neglected, the impacts are massive."

It's stimulating.  "It is really interesting work - I enjoy being able to think about the bigger picture and at the same time, I get a really good understanding of what is going on at a market operator level."

"There are always exciting opportunities for growth and progression here. People are committed and are really prepared to lean in and help you - they'll share what they've done and are experts in their field so there is always something to learn."

It's supportive.  "At first I wasn't sure how my skills would translate at the FMA but I quickly found that they would. Even before my first day on the job, I could tell that people were easy to talk to and the support was readily available."

"It's very flexible here and employees are respected - I really appreciate that as a working parent."

Keen to learn more?

The position description is available by clicking the links in "more details" below or for further information or confidential enquiries please contact Kate Triplow onkate.triplow@fma.govt.nz

Applications close 5pm, Sunday 8 October 2023. 

A great place to work. With great work to do.