News Update to members - Licensing 1 September 2020

Members will be aware of the new licensing regime that comes into effect on 1 September 2020. Members will be aware of the new licensing regime that comes into effect on 1 September 2020.  As we transition to the new legislation, there will be several immediate changes which will impact on Accredited Insolvency Practitioners that we want to update you on. Under the legislation, any individual who is not a member of an Accredited Body has to comply with section 57 of the Insolvency Practitioners Regulation Act 2019, in order to be eligible to apply to be a Licenced Insolvency Practitioner and to take Insolvency Engagements as from 1 September 2020. Section 57 provides for an exemption for overseas practitioners, members of a recognised body, or members of religious societies from the requirement that states you must be a member of an Accredited Body. RITANZ is pleased to confirm that with effect from 1 September 2020, we have been approved as a Recognised Body by the Registrar and NZICA have been approved as an Accredited Body[1]. Any non NZICA member, who has RITANZ membership, will be eligible then to apply for a licence from NZICA.  If you are a current Accredited Insolvency Practitioner, you will receive a communication from NZICA today advising what actions are required to ensure that you can benefit from the transitional provisions of the Insolvency Practitioner Regulation Act 2019. As NZICA prepares to implement the new rules, they have now ceased processing any new applications for Accredited status under our existing Rules.  Accordingly, any new or prospective members who wish to apply for Licenced status will need to do so under the new licensing regime. New application forms will be available on the CA ANZ website today. Becoming a Recognised Body will necessitate some changes to the RITANZ Code of Conduct, as well as our Rules of Association, to align our processes more fully with the legislation and CA ANZ.  We will be finalising this over the coming weeks and will need to call an Extraordinary General Meeting for our Members to approve the changes required to our Rules. In addition, further training, where required, will be rolled out to deal with any new obligations and changes for our Members. In the interim, we would like to remind you that the RITANZ Code of Conduct will continue to apply in its current form and we draw your attention to the following sections of the Code for the sake of clarity. Part 1

• Interaction with legislation

Some standards imposed on Members are higher than existing legal requirements. Where the law is silent or ambiguous, the Code introduces principles to clarify understanding of the desire behaviour. If there is any conflict between a Member’s legal obligations and the requirements of this Code then, to the extent the Member is unable to reasonably avoid or otherwise mitigate that conflict, the Member must give priority to compliance with their legal obligations. 1.5 Interrelationship with other professional standards and with professional obligations To the extent that the Code imposes a higher standard on Practitioners than requirements from other associations or the Regulator, the Code will prevail. Reminder about upcoming Webinar on legislative changes Just a reminder, as part of our education delivery to our members, RITANZ will be presenting a webinar at 11 am on Monday, 31 August 2020, presented by John Fisk, PwC and Michael Arthur, Chapman Tripp, to explain and clarify the new Act and the requirements that will flow from that. An invitation to this event will be sent to you in the next few days. Members can expect to receive further communication from RITANZ over the coming weeks to ensure that you are fully up to date on what is expected from you ahead of 1 September 2020.  However, if you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to let us know. [1] NZICA has statutory responsibilities under the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Act 1996 to regulate the practice of its members in New Zealand.  Members of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand who are resident in New Zealand are NZICA members.

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