FMA’s First Audit On Catalist As Licensed Market Operator Released

The Financial Market Authority (FMA) today released their annual review of how well Catalist meets its licensed market operator obligations – the first since Catalist received its licence to operate a public stock exchange for New Zealand’s growth businesses in June 2021.

The review found overall, Catalist has complied with its licensed market operator obligations during the review period of 21 June 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The obligations include ensuring the market is fair, orderly and transparent, having adequate arrangements for notifying information disclosures, monitoring participant conduct, enforcing compliance with market rules, and having sufficient resources to operate its licensed markets properly.

In its key observations, the FMA say Catalist’s platform is a modern application that is well positioned for growth.

“Catalist has developed governance arrangements, and drafted protocols that have been tailored for its purposes and are relevant to the nature and size of its current activity.

“From the discussions and information gathered, we observed the overall design of Catalist to be well planned, noting the organisation is well placed to naturally expand as business grows.

“From commencement through to the end of the review period, Catalist has maintained proactive engagement with issuers, investors, and the regulator,” the report says.

Colin Magee, Catalist Chief Executive, says Catalist is pleased to receive a clean bill of health from its first review.

“It’s an acknowledgment that our systems and processes have been well set up to support growth of the market.

“Our focus is on working with the businesses wanting to make use of this novel market for their benefit and for the benefit of New Zealand investors”, he says.

Catalist Markets Limited (Catalist) is licensed under section 316 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMC Act) to operate the Catalist Public Market.

The public market is designed to fill a gap in New Zealand’s capital markets, where small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can raise new capital of up to $20m per year, and investors are provided with liquidity through secondary market trading.

© Scoop Media