{"id":549182,"date":"2026-07-29T07:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549182\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:26:10","slug":"fma-looks-into-workplace-culture-concerns-as-a-matter-of-urgency-ceo-on-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549182\/","title":{"rendered":"FMA looks into workplace culture concerns \u2018as a matter of urgency\u2019; CEO on leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rumour mill has been turning for some time over troubles at the FMA.<\/p>\n

In May, the regulator announced Barrass wouldn\u2019t seek reappointment<\/a> once her first term in the role ends in January.<\/p>\n

She won\u2019t speak at a major Financial Services Council conference in August. The FMA chief executive has previously featured prominently at the industry event. <\/p>\n

This year, the FMA will be represented by other senior staff.<\/p>\n

The FMA said Barrass advised the board at the end of last year that she was unlikely to seek a further five-year term, because of emerging family needs in the UK.<\/p>\n

At the end of last year, three FMA board members complained to the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister about the conduct of the board\u2019s chairman at the time, Craig Stobo.<\/p>\n

This sparked an independent investigation, which concluded Stobo failed to demonstrate the political neutrality expected of him in the public commentary he made.<\/p>\n

The investigation also revealed tensions between Stobo and the FMA\u2019s management, who weren\u2019t always kept up to date with his movements and had concerns over a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Stobo resigned in May<\/a>, a few weeks before Barrass\u2019 upcoming departure was announced. <\/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":"The rumour mill has been turning for some time over troubles at the FMA. In May, the regulator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[806,1124,3500,10709,2396,1644,15244,42,296,1452,12514,19133,663,220,3302,43,1118,90,40,38,41,39,113094,17708],"class_list":["post-549182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-as","tag-authority","tag-ceo","tag-concerns","tag-culture","tag-financial","tag-fma","tag-headlines","tag-into","tag-issues","tag-leave","tag-looking","tag-looks","tag-markets","tag-matter","tag-news","tag-of","tag-on","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-urgency","tag-workplace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549182","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=549182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}