{"id":262819,"date":"2026-02-01T18:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262819\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T18:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:33:08","slug":"kc-appointed-to-investigate-fma-chairman-craig-stobo-after-concerns-raised-with-commerce-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262819\/","title":{"rendered":"KC appointed to investigate FMA chairman Craig Stobo after concerns raised with commerce minister"},"content":{"rendered":"However, reporting by the NBR in December suggested his conduct around a mid-2025 trip to Estonia may have been the source of concern. <\/p>\n
Speaking to The Platform in July, Stobo said he went to Western Europe on a trip arranged by the NZ Initiative, which was aimed at getting executives and directors to learn about other countries\u2019 economies and governance arrangements. <\/p>\n
Stobo said he met with his FMA equivalents from England, the Netherlands and Estonia. He suggested he self-funded at least part, if not all, of the Estonia leg of the trip. <\/p>\n
The Herald, last month, requested the FMA release all documentation, including communications, related to the Estonia trip under the Official Information Act. <\/p>\n
The FMA extended the timeframe in which it would respond, saying: \u201cAs you are aware MBIE will be leading an independent investigation into matters that have been raised about the FMA chair\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cMBIE has stated that it can make no further comment until the investigation is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stobo is also known for sharing his personal views on politics and economics. Being outspoken has landed public sector leaders in hot water in the past.<\/p>\n
He regularly discusses a range of topical economic and political issues with host Michael Laws on The Platform. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, last year he was criticised by Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson for making a personal submission to Parliament in support of Act\u2019s controversial Treaty Principles Bill. Davidson believed this was inappropriate for a politically neutral public servant.<\/p>\n
There has also been talk of Stobo ruffling feathers at the FMA by taking a hands-on approach towards helping improve the organisation\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
Stakeholders surveyed by the FMA, as a part of its Ease of Doing Business survey, had much more positive experiences with the regulator in the year to June 2025 compared to the previous year. Stobo became chairman in May 2024. <\/p>\n
He was paid $234,000 in the year to June 2025 \u2013 a sum that suggests he clocked up many hours on the job. Neil Quigley was only paid a few thousand dollars more as Reserve Bank chairman in 2024-25 \u2013 a year he had a particularly heavy workload.<\/p>\n
The FMA has had a lot on its plate with companies associated with Du Val being placed into statutory management and the regulatory work it does changing on the back of various reforms.<\/p>\n
Stobo declined the Herald\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
Jen\u00e9e Tibshraeny is the Herald\u2019s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, reporting by the NBR in December suggested his conduct around a mid-2025 trip to Estonia may have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,17623,1124,138,37462,7520,10709,6650,1644,15244,676,12898,27124,220,6722,111,139,69,2081,1355,109646,61,8238,102,379],"class_list":["post-262819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-appointed","tag-authority","tag-business","tag-chairman","tag-commerce","tag-concerns","tag-craig","tag-financial","tag-fma","tag-investigate","tag-investigation","tag-kc","tag-markets","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-raised","tag-starting","tag-stobo","tag-to","tag-under","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}