This notice comes into force on 8 December 2023 and is revoked on the close of 7 December 2025.

Under section 461ZI of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (the Act), climate reporting entities must lodge their climate statements (or group climate statements) within 4 months after their balance date. Under section 461ZJ of the Act, they must include in their annual report a copy of those statements or the address of (or a link to) the Internet site where a copy of those statements can be accessed.

Particularly in the early stages of the climate-related disclosures regime, climate reporting entities are likely to need the full 4 months contemplated by the Act in which to prepare and lodge their climate statements.

However, the requirement in section 461ZJ of the Act for climate reporting entities to include the statements in their annual report has the effect, for listed issuers and registered banks, of shortening the time available in which to do this.

This is because listed issuers and registered banks are subject to other requirements (external to the Act) that mean they prepare their annual report earlier than 4 months after their balance date. In particular,—

• a listed issuer must publish its annual report within 3 months after its balance date under NZX Listing Rule 3.6.1; and

• a registered bank must publish a disclosure statement within 3 months of its balance date under clause 9 of the Registered Bank Disclosure Statements (New Zealand Incorporated Registered Banks) Order 2014 or clause 10 of the Registered Bank Disclosure Statements (Overseas Incorporated Registered Banks) Order 2014 (as applicable). The disclosure statement must include the registered bank’s financial statements (see clauses 24 and 25 of those orders, respectively). Financial statements are also required for a registered bank’s annual report (see sections 209 and 211 of the Companies Act 1993). Accordingly, as an efficiency measure, many registered banks produce their annual report within 3 months of their balance date to align with the deadline for their disclosure statement, and there is also a market expectation that they do so.

Accordingly, listed issuers and registered banks are likely, in practice, to need to prepare their climate statements within 3 months after their balance date rather than within 4 months as contemplated by the Act.

While it is not anticipated that this will cause a problem in the long term, it is likely to be unduly challenging to comply with in the early stages of the climate-related disclosures regime.

This notice therefore exempts, for a period of 2 years, climate reporting entities that are listed issuers and registered banks from the requirement in section 461ZJ of the Act to include in their annual report a copy of their climate statements or a link to the Internet site where the climate statements can be accessed. The exemption is subject to conditions that require the entity to specify in its annual report where and when the climate statements will be made available (which must be a date no later than the date by which the entity is required to lodge the statements under section 461ZI of the Act) and the entity must then make them available as specified in the annual report.

The Financial Markets Authority (the FMA), after satisfying itself as to the matters set out in section 557 of the Act, considers it appropriate to grant the exemption because—

• producing climate statements within less than 4 months after the balance date will be unduly challenging for listed issuers and registered banks in the first 2 years of the climate-related disclosures regime, when data retrieval and reporting processes may not yet have been properly established, the nature of the disclosures will be unfamiliar, and the regime is still embedding. Relieving those climate reporting entities from the requirement to include the statements in their annual report will allow more time for the statements to be prepared. This will improve the quality of the disclosures made so that users may have more confidence in the reporting and will advance the success of the regime in the first 2 years; and

• listed issuers and registered banks are likely to bear greater compliance costs in the first 2 years than will ordinarily be the case, and without benefit to users, if they have to compress climate statement preparation into less than 4 months. This is because additional personnel or consultant support will likely be needed to meet the earlier deadline and may only be available at a premium.

For those reasons, the FMA is satisfied that the exemption is desirable to promote the purposes of the Act. Specifically, the exemption will—

• promote the confident and informed participation of businesses, investors, and consumers in the financial markets; and

• provide for timely, accurate, and understandable information to be provided to persons to assist investment decisions; and

• avoid unnecessary compliance costs.

The FMA is further satisfied that the exemption is not broader than is reasonably necessary to address the matters to which it relates because the exemption is limited to listed issuers and registered banks, is time-limited to 2 years, and does not allow for publication or lodgement of climate statements beyond the 4 months specified by the Act.