Willis described him as one of this country’s most respected directors.
“His expertise in capital markets, corporate governance and financial regulation, including his time chairing the NZX, and as an inaugural director of the FMA, makes him exactly the leader the FMA needs as it steps into its expanded role.
“Every New Zealander with a KiwiSaver account has a stake in our capital markets. They are how your savings become finance for a growing business, a new house, or the infrastructure this country needs. But our markets are too shallow, and New Zealanders miss out because of it.”
The FMA is now the single financial markets conduct regulator, following the transfer of consumer credit regulation from the Commerce Commission.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said Janes had been appointed to the FMA board for a two-year term.
Janes was the inaugural chair of NZ RegCo, the NZX’s independent regulatory arm, and Brewer said he brought significant capital markets expertise, including in investment management and regulation, and as chair of NZX-listed companies.
Janes was a former chair of Abano Healthcare who successfully defended multiple takeover offers for the business during the last decade, before it was finally taken private in 2020.
He was also on the board of finance company Capital + Merchant for a short time, leaving in 2006 a year before the lender collapsed owing $167 million to investors.
Trevor Janes. Photo / File
On Tuesday, MBIE appointed Kristy McDonald KC to lead the workplace investigation at the FMA. The Herald reported on Friday, “multiple” past and present FMA staff raised concerns about the workplace with the chief victim adviser to government, Ruth Money.
The concerns reached the Public Service Commission and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister on Friday, July 24.
By Wednesday, July 29, FMA chief executive Samantha Barrass went on leave and board member Alastair Hercus was made interim chief executive.
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