Have Your Say On Financial Service Providers (Registration And Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill
Press Release – The Finance and Expenditure Committee
Financial dispute resolution is a free way for consumers to resolve disputes with their bank, insurer, KiwiSaver provider, or other financial service provider.
The Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for submissions on the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Bill. The closing date for submissions is 11.59pm on Monday, 23 June 2025.
This bill is one of three that the Finance and Expenditure Committee is considering related to financial services. The other two bills are the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Bill and the Financial Markets Conduct Amendment Bill.
Please take care to upload your submission on the relevant bill.
Financial dispute resolution is a free way for consumers to resolve disputes with their bank, insurer, KiwiSaver provider, or other financial service provider. This bill would make two changes to financial dispute resolution. The changes aim to ensure:
improved oversight of approved dispute resolution scheme performance, by requiring the responsible Minister to decide how the schemes must undertake their independent reviews
effective and impartial governance of the schemes' boards, by providing for a regulation-making power that can be used to set skills, experience, and independence requirements of board members.
Make a submission on the bill by 11.59pm on Monday, 23 June 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Should I contribute to KiwiSaver or pay mortgage faster? Ask Susan
The short answer is it depends. Photo: RNZ I was wondering, is it better to invest more in your KiwiSaver or into your mortgage? We are lucky and have a little bit of extra cash every pay, so we have been making additional mortgage repayments. With the upcoming changes to KiwiSaver, we won't be able to continue to do this if we don't opt out. What is the better option? My thinking is the lower the mortgage, the less interest we pay, which would see us better off in the long term. Fisher Funds Kiwisaver general manager David Boyle says he has received questions like this over the years and the answer is: "it depends". "It's hard to know, without knowing the total financial position and how long they've got until they retire," he said. "Paying more off your mortgage and contributing to KiwiSaver are both smart choices, if you find yourself with a bit of money leftover before payday. "To help with this here are some things they should consider if they keep paying a bit more off the mortgage." It's probably worth talking to a financial adviser about this. If you opt to focus on paying your mortgage faster, you might need a plan to get you on track for retirement, once that loan is gone. The increase to contributions of 4 percent is stepped over the next couple of years. Are you likely to receive a pay rise over that period that will help you continue paying a bit off your mortgage, as well as contribute a bit more? You also have the option to temporarily lower your contribution rate back to 3 percent if you want. I am the epitome of being a victim of the government's totally unfair direct deduction policy. I should have started receiving my richly deserved superannuation when I qualified for it 9.5 years ago and the Winter Energy Payments seven years ago when they began. Consequently, over $300,000 has been stolen from me and I live in abject poverty as a result. I am a dual citizen from America. I have lived here 19.5 years, so on what legal basis has the government for denying the WEPs? Its written explanation is that it would be difficult to administer to NZ seniors not currently receiving a government benefit such as superannuation. That is mind boggling and I hope you see fit to write about this outrageous treatment of nearly 100,000 Kiwi seniors. Sorry, yes, I've checked with the ministry and it confirms that people who are not getting NZ Super because of an overseas pension cannot get the Winter Energy Payment. Generally, if your NZ Super entitlement has been eliminated by your overseas pension, it's because what you receive from overseas is more than the NZ Super payment. Send your questions to Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
1News
2 days ago
- 1News
Call to rethink tax on KiwiSaver
KiwiSaver members could be significantly better off if New Zealand adopted a taxation model similar to Australia's, an economist says. Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub ran some numbers modelling a system similar to Australia's, where contributions and returns are taxed at 15%. In New Zealand, full tax is paid on income contributed to KiwiSaver, and returns in PIE schemes taxed at an investor's prescribed investor rate up to 28%. Eaqub said an "average" KiwiSaver investor starting now could end up $60,000 better off in nominal terms at retirement on a model similar to Australia's. If tax was not paid on contributions or returns, they could be about $1 million better off - and if only taxes on returns were removed the gain would be about $300,000. "In Australia, the context is there's some conversation about whether the tax breaks are too generous for richer people. It's not that it's perfect but the point is in other countries it's heavily incentivised for people to save in their private pension." ADVERTISEMENT But it was not in New Zealand. Kirk Hope, chief executive of the Financial Services Council, which represents KiwiSaver providers, said the Australian model was different because that country has a means-tested pension. "The tax break that occurs in New Zealand occurs when you retire, when you get national super... that is the equivalent of about $500,000. So I think it's hard to do a comparative analysis without acknowledging that there are significant differences between the schemes and what they are trying to achieve." Winter's here, supermarket spying, and TikTok's new feature. (Source: 1News) But he said if the tax on savings for New Zealanders was reduced it would give future governments more "fiscal options" in relation to superannuation. He said New Zealand previously had a system that was EET — or exempt, exempt, taxed, where contributions were tax-exempt, exempt from tax within the scheme and then fully taxed when withdrawn. The Tax Working Group in 2018 acknowledged that the change from that system had potentially created incentives for New Zealanders to direct savings into investments like houses instead. ADVERTISEMENT Hope said it would be expensive to adjust back to EET but there could be other changes that would be more affordable. The tax working group estimated that ignoring behavioural changes, it would cost $200m to $300m a year to move to a system where returns and withdrawals were not taxed, and $2.5b a year to move to an EET system. "The higher initial cost for an EET regime arises from the fact that there will be a substantial deferral period before significant amounts are withdrawn from the scheme, and thus taxed under the third 't'. Although these are very different initial costs, the costs will be the same in the long run on a net present value basis." Hope said providing different forms of tax incentives would be beneficial for savers. He said removing or reducing the employer contribution tax would be particularly useful for low-income people. Kernel Wealth founder Dean Anderson said New Zealand was one of the few countries operating a TTE — taxed contributions, taxed returns and exempt withdrawal — model. "Our future savings would be much better off under an EET approach, where we don't pay tax on the way in but on the way out. ADVERTISEMENT "With low savings rates in NZ, the government should be exploring everything in its powers to grow savings rates, which benefits NZ and Kiwis over the long term. "But it's not a surprise. The recent meek KiwiSaver policy announcement did all the hard work to announce a positive gradual increase to KiwiSaver contributions, yet they fell short by announcing a three-year policy rather than outlining a decade plus long policy of incremental KiwiSaver increases." Ana-Marie Lockyer, chief executive at Pie Funds, said KiwiSaver members were at a disadvantage compared to Australians because there was no upfront tax incentive or concession as in Australia to encourage them to contribute more. "Maybe consideration of a mid-tier flat tax rate on savings up to a certain amount would encourage savings." She said employer contributions were also taxed so investors lost the benefits of compounding, and investors paid tax on bonds and deemed dividends on global equities so they were effectively paying a capital gains tax. "So contrary to the government's stated goal of helping New Zealanders' grow their KiwiSaver balances, these factors mean New Zealanders have less incentives to make voluntary contributions and pay more tax on investment earnings, resulting in smaller balances at retirement relative to our Australian friends."
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
KiwiSaver Providers Hope Public Support For Contribution Increases Will See Default Rates Move Higher
KiwiSaver providers are unsurprised by the public support, and hope it will see default contribution rates increase further. Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent KiwiSaver providers are hoping public support for increased contribution rates could provide the incentive to push them still higher. The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll included questions about the changes to the KiwiSaver scheme announced in the Budget. From 1 April next year, the default contribution rate for employers and employees will rise to 3.5 percent. The following April, it will be 4 percent. But the government will halve the credit it offers to people who contribute at least $1042 a year to their KiwiSaver, to a maximum $260.72. It will not be available to people earning more than $180,000. The poll showed a total of 61.2 percent of respondents supported the contribution change, 21.4 percent opposed it and 17.4 percent were not sure. Among National voters, almost 80 percent supported the change. But only 23.7 percent of total voters supported the government's move to halve the contribution rate, and fewer than half of National supporters. Fisher Funds chief investment officer Ashley Gardyne said he was not surprised by the findings. He said we should not stop at 4 percent plus 4 percent, and should push towards higher contribution rates. 'I think it's really positive we've seen the contribution rates increase, and ultimately if we want people to get to the right amount of savings in retirement those rates do need to move up through time.' He said the Australian model, where contribution rates slowly lifted over a number of years, could be one to follow. 'They took a really long-term, 10-year approach of increasing contributions by a little bit every year. The reality is it's tough to find extra money in your pay cheque to put into KiwiSaver but it is really important long-term as well to make sure you end up in the right position for retirement. 'Having a long-term vision like that is really important.' Kirk Hope, chief executive of the Financial Services Council, which represents KiwiSaver providers, agreed the results were expected. 'We've known for some time that in terms of contributions those will be relatively well received. Obviously it's a bit tougher if the government contribution is being halved or in some cases removed that's not going to be particularly popular, the key thing is the government continues to contribute something.' He said there should be a bipartisan agreement about a long-term strategy for retirement income. He said it was also worth discussing other steps the government could take, such as adjusting the tax settings. 'Other changes the government might be able to make to the tax system in the future to continue to incentivise particularly savings and even up the playing field between savings and investment and housing. That's some fundamental shifts in the tax system.' More incentives needed Ana-Marie Lockyer, chief executive at Pie Funds, said it was good to see that most people supported the contribution increase. 'In terms of the halving of the government contributions we need to acknowledge the government faced some hard choices as a result of the tight fiscal environment. But I believe we should be offering more incentives for Kiwis to save for their retirement, not fewer. 'Reducing the government contribution is more likely to impact the retirement balances of lower income earners – a group who deserve the same opportunities as everyone else.' She said even a reduced contribution of $261 a year could grow to more than $40,000 over a person's working life. 'I think what's more important than the dollar amount of the government contribution is the number of Kiwis who don't receive it, either because they're not eligible or they're not contributing enough. 'While it's a good thing that the government contributions are now available for 16- and 17-year-olds, I think the government missed a trick by not extending it to the increasing number of over-65s who are still working, whether by choice or necessity. 'What's probably more concerning is the thousands of KiwiSavers missing out on the MTC government contribution each year because they're not contributing enough to qualify, leaving millions of dollars on the table. 'So the poll is actually a timely reminder for people to ensure they've contributed at least $1043 by 30 June in order to receive the full government contribution of $521 – before it reduces to $261 next year.' A spokesperson for Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the changes to KiwiSaver were designed to help Kiwis to save more and make the scheme more fiscally sustainable. 'For example, an 18-year-old earning the minimum wage of just under $49,000 a year who invests in a balanced fund can expect to have almost $910,000 in KiwiSaver at age 65. Under the old settings it would have been about $732,000. 'The results are similar for most other people. The Retirement Commissioner estimates the changes will increase retirement savings for about 80 percent of KiwiSaver members.'
