Mercer appoints first independent director to trustee board

Mercer appoints first independent director to trustee board

Monday 21st March 2011

Mercer has today announced the appointment of Ross Butler as the first independent director to the board of its in-house trustee company, Mercer Investment Nominees (NZ) Limited (“MINL (NZ)”).

Mr Butler is a highly regarded company director and was previously appointed by the Commissioner for Financial Advisers to the Code Committee responsible for the Code of Professional Conduct for financial advisers. He chairs that Committee. He joined the MINL (NZ) board on January 1st, 2011.

In addition, Martin Stevenson, a Partner in Mercer’s Retirement, Risk & Finance business has joined the MINL (NZ) board. Based in Sydney, Martin also acts as a member of the MINL (Australia) board and is a former President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Mr Butler and Mr Stevenson bring a wealth of experience to the MINL (NZ) and join Mercer executives Graeme Cosgrove and Peter Promnitz to make up the four directors of the board.

MINL (NZ) oversees the governance of most of Mercer New Zealand’s KiwiSaver and superannuation products. The board also monitors adherence to legislative and compliance requirements and is responsible for issuing prospectuses and investment statements for various publicly offered superannuation and KiwiSaver schemes.

Martin Lewington, Head of Mercer New Zealand says the appointments add to the increasing wealth of knowledge and level of expertise required at board level.

“The structure of the New Zealand regulatory environment is changing, with the formation of a new regulator – the Financial Markets Authority – and a range of new requirements for financial services companies,” Mr Lewington said.

“In light of this, both Mercer NZ and MINL (NZ) have formally registered as financial services providers and Mercer NZ has made application to the Securities Commission for acceptance as a Qualifying Financial Entity (QFE). As a QFE, Mercer will take front-line compliance responsibility for the actions of its advisory employees who give investment advice to members of our superannuation and KiwiSaver schemes,” he said.

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