FMA chair Craig Stobo is under investigation. Spotlight is falling on a trip he took to Estonia

Friday, 12 December 2025

ANALYSIS: The Government and officials remain tight-lipped over the investigation under way into “matters” raised about Craig Stobo, the chair of the regulator tasked with keeping New Zealand’s capital markets transparent, fair and trusted.

Veteran financial markets expert Stobo was appointed chair in May last year to repair the Financial Markets Authority’s Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko (FMA) relationship with the financial services industry.

News that Stobo was standing aside temporarily until the completion of an investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which oversees the FMA, caused shockwaves on Friday as Stobo had a reputation as a trusted and experienced financial markets operator.

But details of what was being investigated have not been disclosed, and neither Stobo, or the FMA or MBIE, or Commerce Minister Scott Simpson is even willing to say what is being investigated.

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But on Tuesday, business publication NBR reported that “rumours” were swirling around a trip to Estonia.

One well-placed source The Post spoke to believed that was correct, however neither Stobo, nor the minister, nor the two government agencies would confirm it.

The Post has seen a photo posted by an Estonian company that confirms he has visited Estonia.

The Post understands there have also been concerns raised about whether Stobo’s appearances on the right-leaning The Platform media outlet were compromising the political neutrality his role as chair of the FMA required.

Stobo appears regularly on The Platform as an “economic commentator”, not as FMA chair, to speak about economic issues in wide-ranging conversations with veteran broadcaster and politician Michael Laws. The appearances began long before he was appointed FMA chair.

Examples of topics covered include his support for Crown asset sales to help pay for new infrastructure, and his opinion that the Green Party plan to cancel fast track mining and oil and gas projects would hurt New Zealand’s reputation as a stable place to do business, hinder foreign investment, and potentially drive up the cost of capital.

He has also spoken about his belief that current agricultural methane emissions policy is misguided, and that the age of eligibility for NZ Super has to rise to fund an “unaffordable” pensions system.

In other appearances he has expressed disappointment at the Green Party’s alternative “budget” which he said would see the country increase its national debt, leaving the country less room to borrow to fund a recovery, should a natural disaster strike.

Stobo has also expressed frustration with media, and spoke recently about the importance of “transparency, openness, frank discussions about things”.

Estonian trip

Stobo’s Estonia visit appears to have been part of a 20 day trip he took to Europe, which also took in The Netherlands and the UK.

He told Michael Laws on The Platform that he had gone to Europe on a trip organised by The New Zealand Initiative, a right-leaning economic think tank in New Zealand.

Stobo was listed in the Initiative’s Go Dutch report on its trip, which ran from June 22 to June 27, as being managing director of the Stobo Group, not the chair of the FMA.

Stobo Group is a private company co-owned by Stobo and two others.

Stobo told Laws that the side trip to Estonia was not part of the Initiative’s trip, and was “self-funded”.

“At the end of that I did a self-funded trip to Estonia to learn about what I think is the coolest digital society in the world,” he told Laws.

He lauded Estonia’s business-friendly culture and low-tax system in the interview with Laws.

Stobo was photographed in Estonia with former FMA external relations adviser Kyla Bottriell. She was not listed in the Initiative’s report on its trip.

The photo posted on Linkedin by Estonian company Creditinfo contained a caption that read: “Craig Stobo, Chairman of the Board of the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority of New Zealand, and External Relations Advisor Kyla Bottriell visited Creditinfo to discuss how open data and digital identity can help make credit applications more responsible and user-friendly.”

Bottriell’s Linkedin profile says she left the FMA in June. She has since clarified that she concluded her employment with the FMA prior to her visit to Estonia, and attended events there in a private capacity.

The Post has asked for comment from Stobo and MBIE, but all declined to comment.

The Post is awaiting a response from the FMA on whether Stobo was representing the regulator on his visit to Estonia, and whether the regulator provided funding for the trip.

Minister on investigation

Commerce Minister Scott Simpson, who is responsible for the FMA, said: “Concerns were raised with me and they were sufficient to warrant further investigation.

“I've asked MBIE to undertake an independent investigation into the matters raised.”

“Mr Stobo has agreed to stand down from his role while this investigation is in progress,” Simpson said.

Stobo’s commercial interests

Stobo has a portfolio of private interests and directorships, and The Post understands questions were asked about several when he was hired as FMA chair.

He stepped down from a directorship at Saturn Advice, founded by respected financial adviser Lisa Dudson.

However, Stobo did not step down from the board of Appello Services, an Auckland-based business providing administration services for the wealth management and superannuation industries.

There are two other directors: Craig Nodder and Anthony Charles Russell Hannon.

Hannon was a director of CBL Corporation (CBLC), an insurance group which many KiwiSaver funds are invested in, whose shares went from being worth quarter of a billion dollars to zero after the true state of the company was revealed.

CBLC was listed on the NZX Main Board in 2015. It had a market capitalisation of $747 million, and a share price of $3.17, when trading of its shares was halted and then suspended in February 2018, the FMA says.

The company was put into voluntary administration in February 2018, and then placed in liquidation in May 2019.

Hannon was a director of CBL Corporation (CBLC) from October 2013 to November 2018.

In 2023, the High Court ordered CBLC and four of its former directors to pay penalties for continuous disclosure and misleading conduct breaches following proceedings brought by the FMA under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.

It had failed to tell investors on the NZX sharemarket, which the FMA regulates, about the true state of its finances, or the directions imposed on its Irish subsidiary by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Hannon was one of the directors who entered a settlement agreement with the FMA in May 2023 which included making admissions of liability on contraventions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act.

In December 2023, three of those directors: Sir John Wells, Paul Donaldson and Ian Marsh were each ordered to pay the jointly submitted penalties of $1 million.

The FMA said at the time: “Mr Hannon was ordered to pay the jointly submitted penalty of $1.1 million. Mr Hannon’s penalty was higher than that of the other directors to reflect his elevated culpability in respect of one of the breaches.”

Following a penalty hearing in the High Court in Auckland on 4 December, Justice Gault said: “The present case is the epitome of what the fair dealing provisions and continuous disclosure regime are designed to prevent.”

One high-ranking financial markets participant said Stobo serving on a board with Hannon while being chair of the FMA was “weird”, but had surely been vetted in the appointment process before Stobo’s appointment.

The FMA continues action against CBL Corporation, and a six-week trial related to the company’s initial public offering in 2015 is set down for April 13, 2026 in the High Court in Auckland.

Hannon is not a party in these proceedings, information on the FMA website shows.

Universal Neighbours

One of the companies Stobo is a director of is Universal Neighbours, which is listed as being in the business consultancy sector, and is partially-owned by Stobo.

A message on its Companies Office Register page says: “This company is now overdue in its obligation to file an annual return. If the annual return is not filed immediately the Registrar will initiate action to remove the company from the register.”

A second message goes on to say: “The Registrar of Companies has initiated action to remove the company from the register and public notice was given. The objection period has lapsed and the Registrar will continue with the removal process unless an objection has been received.”

Market sources said while this might not be seen as a good look for the chair of a regulator, it was not a serious issue.

It was a common occurrence when a company is no longer needed by its shareholders, and is allowed to sit dormant until the Registrar of Companies removes it from the register.

Correction: The story has been amended to reflect the fact Kyla Bottriell had concluded her employment with the FMA prior to the time she appeared at the Estonian events detailed above. She attended these events in her private capacity.