Some Queenstown hotels are being caught out by a little-publicised new law requiring licences for changing foreign currency. 

Currency transactions now fall under the Financial Services Providers (Registration & Dispute Resolution) Act, a law enforced by the Financial Markets Authority, a new Government watchdog replacing the Securities Commission. 

“The definition of ‘financial services provider’ includes anyone who changes foreign currency,” FMA spokesperson Nick Stride confirms, adding that all financial services providers must be registered. 

Initial registration costs several hundred dollars a year followed by an annual renewal fee. 

Coronet Peak Hotel boss David Mercer says he’s been in the hotel business 40 years and had never heard of it till Mountain Scene contacted him. 

“We’ll certainly follow this up and make sure things are [put] right,” Mercer says. 

Another Queenstown hotelier inadvertently breaching the new licensing regime is Dave Philpott of Sherwood Manor. 

Philpott says his commission from currency exchange wouldn’t cover even half his initial registration costs so is likely to stop offering it. 

Both Philpott and Mercer say they only change foreign currency as a service to guests. 

“It’s a service we’ve got to provide,” Mercer says, because about 80 per cent of his guests are from overseas. 

Neither Coronet Peak nor Sherwood Manor are members of the New Zealand Hotel Council, which has 20 Queenstown affiliates. 

New Zealand Hotel Council’s local chair Penny Clark says her organisation set up a group registration scheme for currency-exchange licensing, which saves members money. Bosses at her local member hotels are resigned to coughing up registration fees, she adds.