Commerce Minister Simon Power has announced that auditor oversight as it relates to issuer audits is to be the responsibility of the new Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

Accountants with clients whose property transactions may have been a little over-vigorous during the boom will not be able to relax because the boom is over.

Commerce Minister Simon Power is proposing to strip the accounting profession of self-regulated oversight of auditors after damning criticism from the Registrar of Companies regarding the collapse of the finance company sector.

Three "workstreams" which will affect accountants and auditors will move to a new phase over the next month.

Leading the pack is a paper which Minister of Commerce Simon Power is to take to Cabinet on oversight of auditors.