FISA Self-Assessment

The FISA Self-Assessment provides a mechanism for New Zealand financial entities to assess and improve their integrity systems.

The assessment is a framework for continuous improvement of the culture and conduct in the financial sector - banks, finance companies, KiwiSaver providers, credit unions, building societies, insurance companies and related financial institutions such as trust companies and fund managers.

This online tool is free and open for use by financial organisations until February 2023.

Its use demonstrates how civil society and business can work together to strengthen the integrity of our financial system.
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SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

The FISA On-Line Assessment is recommended by the following organisations:

How can Financial Organisations ACCESS THE FISA Self-ASSESSMENT

The FISA self-assessment is designed for New Zealand regulated financial organisations - banks, financial service providers, KiwiSaver providers, credit unions, building societies, insurance companies and related financial institutions such as trust companies and fund managers.

The self-assessment will be open until 28 February 2023.

‍To request access, please email fisa@discrimen.nz You will need to provide:

Name and position of person requesting access on behalf of the entity
The regulating agency/s for the financial entity that is requesting access
Proof of authorization for person requesting access on behalf of the entity.

The self-assessment tool is not open to organisations outside of the financial sector, because we need to ensure a comparable measure, and because many questions are sector specific.

FISA Self-Assessment

What does the self-assessment cover?

‍There are nine focus areas: governance, accountability, policy oversight, communications, human capital, customer services, risk monitoring, operations and procurement. Benchmark questions are included in each section. Questions are self-scored, with responses verified against publicly available information. The tool identifies best practice behaviours (the benchmarks) and then scores the organisation against that benchmark.

‍What do organisations receive?

‍On completion of the assessment each participating organisation will receive an automated report on their benchmark performance and a copy of their scored answers. Over time participants will be able to see their performance against other (aggregated, anonymised) organisations in industry cohorts.

TINZ encourages a facilitated team approach to the assessment, to promote discussion on strengths, weaknesses and actions. This is a valuable exercise on its own. TINZ can recommend trained facilitators.

‍Security

The tool is held in a secure database. TINZ will not publish individual organisation results. TINZ will only receive and report publicly on aggregated anonymized data. Data provided by respondents is subject to strict security standards including US–EU Safe Harbour and SSAE16/SOC-2 certification.

‍Benefits of FISA Self-Assessment
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It assists financial organisations to examine how well they implement integrity practices that shape and strengthen culture and conduct across organisations — and how they can improve further. If proactively applied, these practices contribute to the prevention of corruption, enhance the mana of the organisation and nurture trust with consumers and stakeholders. This also makes them more attractive to responsible investors. All of this is good for business.

‍TINZ aims

TINZ’s aims for this project are:

Improved integrity practices within financial organisations
Stronger trust and confidence of customers and stakeholders
Improved integrity of the broader New Zealand financial system.

‍History

Dame Suzanne Snively DNZM, former Chair of TINZ held and developed the vision of FISA and has driven its development.

The concept of the Financial Integrity System Assessment (FISA) was launched in 2019 by Adrian Orr, Governor, Reserve Bank New Zealand, and Rob Everett, CEO, Financial Markets Authority. The online self - assessment project was launched by Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Honourable Grant Robertson in July 2021.

The initial vision of FISA was that anonymised, aggregated data would feed into an expert integrity assessment of the broader financial system. In 2022 the TINZ Board agreed to prioritise the use of the FISA self-assessment. Any future development will depend on engagement with the tool, and feedback from users, as well as available resource.

financial integrity system assessment