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Financial Markets Authority Act 2011

Miscellaneous provisions - Fees, charges, costs, and levies

68: Levy of financial markets participants and other persons registered or incorporated under Acts referred to in Schedule 1

You could also call this:

“People and companies in finance pay money to help run the FMA”

This law explains how certain people and companies in the financial markets have to pay money to help run the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Here’s what you need to know:

You might have to pay if you’re part of a special group of people or companies that the law calls “specified persons”. This includes people who work in financial markets and others who are registered under certain laws.

The government decides how much you need to pay and when. They make rules about this called regulations. The money you pay is called a levy.

The levy helps pay for some of the FMA’s work and the cost of collecting the money. If they don’t collect enough one year, they might charge a bit extra in the next few years to make up for it.

The rules can be different for different groups of people. They can also change how much you pay each year. If you’re in more than one group, you might have to pay more than one levy.

If you don’t pay, the FMA can take you to court to get the money. When the FMA gets the levy money, they have to put it into a special government bank account.

The government can also make rules about giving some people discounts or not making them pay at all. These rules are called secondary legislation, which means they’re like extra laws that help the main law work better.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3231763.

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Part 4 Miscellaneous provisions
Fees, charges, costs, and levies

68Levy of financial markets participants and other persons registered or incorporated under Acts referred to in Schedule 1

  1. Every person that is included in a prescribed class of specified persons must pay to the Crown, or a prescribed person on behalf of the Crown, a levy prescribed by regulations.

  2. In this section and section 69, specified persons means—

  3. financial markets participants; and
    1. every other person registered or incorporated, or who makes an application for the registration or incorporation of a person, under an Act referred to in Part 2 of Schedule 1.

      1. The Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations providing for the levies.

      2. Levies must be prescribed on the basis that the following costs should be met fully out of the levies:

      3. a portion of the costs of the FMA in performing or exercising its functions, powers, and duties under this Act and any other enactment, where the size of the portion to be met by levies under this Act is determined by the Minister; and
        1. the costs of collecting the levy money.

          1. Levies may be prescribed on the basis that any actual cost that could have been, but has not been, recovered as a levy shortfall for a year may be recovered (along with any financing charge) over any period of up to 5 years.

          2. The regulations may—

          3. specify the class or classes of specified persons that are required to pay a levy:
            1. specify the amount of levies, or method of calculating or ascertaining the amount of levies:
              1. include in levies, or provide for the inclusion in levies of, any shortfall in recovering the actual costs:
                1. refund, or provide for refunds of, any over-recovery of the actual costs:
                  1. provide for the payment and collection of levies:
                    1. provide different levies for different classes of specified persons:
                      1. specify the financial year or part financial year to which a levy applies, and apply that levy to that financial year or part financial year and each subsequent financial year until the levy is revoked or replaced:
                        1. for the first financial year to which a levy applies, include in a levy amount or method the costs relating to establishing the FMA, disestablishing the Securities Commission, and the FMA performing or exercising its functions, duties, and powers under any enactment:
                          1. require payment of a levy for a financial year or part financial year, irrespective of the fact that the regulations may be made after that financial year has commenced:
                            1. provide for waivers or refunds of the whole or any part of a levy for any case or class of cases.

                              1. If a person is in 2 or more classes of specified persons in respect of which different levies have been prescribed, the person must pay each of those levies (unless the regulations provide otherwise).

                              2. A levy for a financial year that starts after the FMA begins to carry out any additional function under any enactment may recover the costs of performing that additional function, irrespective of the fact that the regulations may be made and come into effect after the start of the financial year.

                              3. The amount of any unpaid levy is recoverable in any court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to the FMA, or to any other person prescribed for the purposes of this subsection, on behalf of the Crown.

                              4. The FMA, or any other person prescribed for the purposes of this subsection, must ensure that—

                              5. each levy payment is paid into a Crown Bank Account and is separately accounted for; or
                                1. by the 20th day of the month after the month in which the FMA or other person receives a levy payment, the levy payment is paid into a Crown Bank Account.

                                  1. Regulations under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                                  2. If regulations authorise a person to grant waivers or refunds referred to in subsection (6)(j),—

                                  3. an instrument granting a waiver or refund is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements), unless it applies only to 1 or more named persons; and
                                    1. the regulations must contain a statement to that effect.

                                      Notes
                                      • Section 68(10): replaced, on , by section 71 of the Financial Markets (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2013 (2013 No 70).
                                      • Section 68(11): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
                                      • Section 68(12): inserted, on , by regulation 52 of the Legislation Act (Amendments to Legislation) Regulations 2021 (LI 2021/247).