New Zealand’s first roboadvice offering has been given the green light.

The Financial Markets Authority began accepting applications at the end of February from providers who wanted to offer digital personalised financial advice.

In mid-May, Kiwi Wealth was the first provider to receive approval. That will allow it to expand its Future You tool to offer personalised online advice.

The Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill is set to clear the way for personalised advice to be offered by an entity that is not a human person. 

But the FMA offered the exemption option to allow providers to get started offering roboadvice earlier than the law would otherwise allow.

When the law changes, the exemption will be revoked.

A digital advice service may be fully automated, such as a website-only platform. Or it may be a hybrid model that has some human involvement in the advice process, for example, processes where clients interact with a human if they have questions or need assistance. 

The exemption does not cover situations where human advisers use digital tools to assist them to formulate their own financial advice. Human advisers are permitted to do this under the existing Financial Advisers Act.

The provider must retain written records about the personalised digital advice services provided to each retail client for at least seven years, and make these available to clients and to the FMA on request.