{"id":566347,"date":"2026-08-12T03:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566347\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T03:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:20:09","slug":"fma-board-launches-employment-investigation-into-ceo-samantha-barrass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566347\/","title":{"rendered":"FMA board launches employment investigation into CEO Samantha Barrass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img  alt=\"Financial Markets Authority chief executive Samantha Barrass. \" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Financial Markets Authority chief executive Samantha Barrass. <\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">Barrass went on leave, and was temporarily replaced by board member Alistair Hercus, as soon as the board claimed it became aware of problems in late July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">Barrass earlier said she wouldn\u2019t seek to be reappointed once her term as chief executive ended in January 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">She left a former role as Gibraltar Financial Services Commission chief executive in 2019, nearly a year before her contract was due to end. She was involved in litigation during this time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">An FMA spokesperson told the Herald: \u201cNo findings or conclusions have been reached at this stage [in relation to the organisational review], and the FMA cannot provide further detail at this time, for privacy reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">Sources had been worried non-disclosure agreements may have prevented people from contributing to the investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">However, an FMA spokesperson clarified: \u201cThe FMA will waive any confidentiality obligations only for the purpose of their participation in the investigation, commissioned by MBIE. <\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis includes any relevant confidentiality provisions contained in settlement agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">Issues at the FMA came to a head in May, when the organisation\u2019s chairman Craig Stobo resigned after an investigation into his conduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">Stobo was found to have made too many political comments for someone in an apolitical role. The final report revealed a lack of communication between Stobo and the organisation\u2019s executives, and conflict between some FMA staff.<\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Financial Markets Authority chief executive Samantha Barrass. Barrass went on leave, and was temporarily replaced by board member&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1124,223867,1558,2372,138,3500,3937,1122,3938,1644,15244,296,12898,1743,1739,220,111,139,69,67902],"class_list":["post-566347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-authority","tag-barrass","tag-been","tag-board","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-chief","tag-employment","tag-executive","tag-financial","tag-fma","tag-into","tag-investigation","tag-launched","tag-launches","tag-markets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-samantha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566347","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=566347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}