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The Financial Markets Authority has opened an exploratory thematic review of AI in New Zealand financial advice, with four surveys closing on 4 September 2026
The FMA is asking who is already using AI in advice and what it is doing to the file. Nothing in this review changes a licence condition, but the answers will sit on the regulator's desk when it decides whether anything should.
Bottom line: Not binding. This is an exploratory fact-finding review conducted through four voluntary surveys. It creates no new obligation for financial advice providers and states no supervisory expectation.
Who this affects: Licensed financial advice providers and financial advisers in New Zealand, technology service providers selling AI tools into the advice sector, in-house legal teams and law firms advising financial advice participants, and industry associations and dispute resolution schemes.
Issue date: 6 August 2026. All four surveys close 4 September 2026.
What changed: The FMA has moved from general commentary on technology-enabled advice to a structured evidence-gathering exercise aimed specifically at AI, including generative AI, machine learning, decision-support tools and what it calls emerging agentic AI systems.
Analysis: The survey design is the story. By running a separate instrument for legal advisers, the FMA is collecting a map of where the profession itself thinks the regulatory uncertainty sits, which is a different question from what firms are willing to tell their regulator about their own deployments.
Primary sources: FMA thematic review page · Engagement overview (PDF) · FMA online portal for surveys
- Instrument (EN)
- Thematic review: Artificial intelligence in financial advice
- Authority
- Financial Markets Authority (Te Mana Tatai Hokohoko), New Zealand
- Jurisdiction
- New Zealand
- Status
- Open engagement; surveys live via the FMA portal
- Bindingness
- Non-binding. Exploratory and fact-finding, on the FMA's own description
- Issue date / next deadline
- Published 6 August 2026 / surveys close 4 September 2026
- Instrument type
- Thematic review with four targeted surveys
- Follow-up
- The FMA may run interviews, workshops or meetings with willing survey participants
- Primary source
- https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/reports-and-papers/thematic-review-ai-in-financial-advice/
What the FMA actually opened
On 6 August 2026 the FMA published a page and an engagement overview announcing a thematic review into how artificial intelligence is being used in financial advice across New Zealand. The review is open to responses until 4 September 2026.
The FMA describes the exercise in its own words as exploratory and fact-finding in nature, intended to help the regulator and industry build a shared understanding of how AI is shaping financial advice. That framing matters for anyone reading trade coverage of it. No conduct standard is being set here, and no licence condition is being varied.
The technologies named on the page are generative AI, machine learning, AI-powered decision-support tools and emerging agentic AI systems. The last of those is worth noticing: the regulator is asking about autonomous systems before it has much evidence they are in the market.
Four surveys, four different audiences
Rather than one general call for submissions, the FMA has split the engagement into four instruments, each accessed through the FMA portal.
The financial advice providers and advisers survey is aimed at providers, advisers, prospective market entrants and firms using, developing or considering AI in connection with financial advice. The FMA says it asks about governance, oversight, suitability, record-keeping and consumer outcomes.
The technology service providers survey covers firms supplying software, platforms, tools or AI-enabled services into the advice sector, and seeks insights into AI-enabled products, operating arrangements, data practices and market observations. A third survey targets legal advisers, in-house legal teams and law firms, asking about legal and regulatory matters, governance considerations, contractual arrangements and emerging areas of regulatory uncertainty. A fourth is open to industry associations, professional bodies, consumer representatives and dispute resolution schemes.
PDF copies of the question sets are published for reference, but the FMA states the portal version is the definitive one and asks that responses be submitted online.
The access angle the FMA is carrying over
The review page links this work to the FMA's earlier Access to Financial Advice in New Zealand review, which the FMA says identified a significant opportunity for technology-enabled and hybrid advice models to expand access to advice and serve more people.
So the review is not framed as a risk sweep. It is framed as an attempt to understand both the benefits and the risks being observed, and any legal, operational or regulatory questions arising within the sector. Firms responding should read the question set with that in mind: an answer that only describes controls, and says nothing about what the technology is being used to achieve, answers half of what is being asked.
What happens after 4 September
The FMA says that once survey responses have been reviewed it may undertake follow-up engagement with selected participants who have indicated they are willing to be contacted, and that this may include interviews, workshops or meetings.
The page does not commit to publishing a report, does not give a date for any output, and does not say the review will lead to guidance. Anyone briefing a board on this should not promise a deliverable the FMA has not promised.
One practical consequence for advice firms: the willingness-to-be-contacted question is a real decision, not a formality. Saying yes means a conversation with your regulator about a system you are running, at a time and depth the regulator chooses.
What we did not verify
We opened and read the FMA thematic review page at fma.govt.nz dated 06 August 2026, including its description of the review, the four surveys, the 4 September 2026 closing date and the next steps section. Every fact and the quotation above come from that page.
We did not open the engagement overview PDF, the four survey PDFs, the FMA portal itself, or the earlier Access to Financial Advice in New Zealand review. We therefore cannot describe individual survey questions, response formats, or how the FMA defines any term used inside those documents.
We make no claim about how the FMA will supervise AI in advice, whether guidance will follow, or how existing conduct and record-keeping duties apply to any particular AI deployment. The page does not address those questions and neither do we.
A fact-finding review binds nobody, but it is where a regulator's later expectations get their evidence base. Advice firms and their technology suppliers have until 4 September 2026 to shape that evidence. The legal-adviser survey is the unusual one, because it invites the profession to name the areas of regulatory uncertainty the FMA has not yet resolved.
Source File
https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/reports-and-papers/thematic-review-ai-in-financial-advice/
Open the FMA thematic review page and confirm the 06 August 2026 date line, the sentence describing the review as exploratory and fact-finding, the statement that the surveys are open until 04 September 2026, and the four named survey audiences.
This thematic review is exploratory and fact-finding in nature. ยท Financial Markets Authority, thematic review page, 6 August 2026
FAQ
Does this review change what a New Zealand financial advice provider has to do?
No. The FMA describes it as exploratory and fact-finding. It imposes no new obligation and states no supervisory expectation. Existing duties are unchanged by the review itself.
When do responses close?
4 September 2026. The FMA page states the surveys are open until that date and asks that responses go through the FMA portal rather than the reference PDFs.
Which survey should a law firm complete?
The financial services legal advisers survey, which the FMA says is for legal advisers, in-house legal teams and law firms that advise participants in the financial advice sector.
Will the FMA publish a report?
The page does not say so. It says the FMA may undertake follow-up engagement, including interviews, workshops or meetings, with participants who indicated they are willing to be contacted.
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