Simon Allen has been appointed as chairman of the soon-to-be established Financial Markets Authority.
The FMA will take over work currently carried out by the Securities Commission, the Ministry of Economic Development and the NZX from April.
Mr Allen, who currently chairs Crown Fibre Holdings, previously chaired the NZX and was the founder and former managing director of ABN AMRO.
Cabinet has approved the appointment, which will be for a two-year term.
Commerce Minister Simon Power expects to make more announcements in the coming weeks about the authority's other board members.
