Inside Money: Regulators offer food for thought

You'd need a few drinks to get through a dinner like the Securities Commission put on in March. Photo / Thinkstock

This just in from Natalie Muir, Securities Commission senior solicitor:

"The dinner on 23 March 2011 referred to in this article was to farewell Jane Diplock AO, Chairman of the Commission since September 2001, and David Mayhew, Commissioner for Financial Advisers since January 2010.

The expense to the Commission of the dinner was $3,665.20 plus GST. Drinks were not billed to the Commission, they were paid for personally by Commission members."

We can thank the Hubbard Support Team, who have been pursuing their lost cause and conspiracy theories with admirable doggedness, for this delicious piece of edible trivia.

The Hubbardites billed the bill as "Jane Diplock's incredible expensive leaving dinner!" but by executive standards it looks pretty cheap to me - especially when you consider it was a 'twofer' with the David Mayhew send-off included in the goodbye package.

Remember also, as Muir notes, guests paid for their own drinks, which you'd need a few of to get through a dinner like that.

Diplock's real departure expenses, though, should show up in the final Securities Commission accounts as it morphs into the Financial Markets Authority.

After 10 years in the job Diplock's 'disestablishment' payout will no doubt be substantial based on her annual salary of $385,000 - so let's not quibble about dinner.

In her last days on the job, Diplock has been offshore, attending the 36th Annual Conference of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in Cape Town, South Africa.

She has been chair of IOSCO for the last six years and judging from the tenor of her speeches over the last 12 months or so it seems that global regulatory issues have been absorbing Diplock more than anything in New Zealand.

However, she will step down from the IOSCO role this Thursday in favour of Maria Helena Santana, chairperson of the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários Brazil.

The final report from the IOSCO conference shows it's been busy updating principles and working on reports. I'm looking forward to reading "Principles for Dark Liquidity", which, mysteriously, will "be published in due course".

IOSCO has confirmed conferences for Beijing next year, Luxembourg in 2013 and Rio de Janeiro in 2014 but provided no guidance on dinner plans.