I have created this website as when I wanted to open a trading account with a New Zealand based forex broker, there was no information where I could compare brokers to see who they are and whether they were a licensed broker etc. My research found many websites that offered comparisons but they were showing advertisements so I was skeptical to whether the information was accurate or was being altered due to advertisements being paid for? This site does not receive payment from advertisers and does not receive payment from you visiting it and clicking on links etc.
New Zealand Derivatives Issuers License
In New Zealand if you offer products such as foreign exchange and/or contracts for difference on margin or rolling spot contracts, and these are offered to retail investors, you must be licensed by the Financial Markets Authority, registered on the Financial Services Provider Register and you must be a member of the Financial Dispute Resolution (FDR scheme), New Zealand.
The license required to offer products to retail investors is called a ‘Derivatives Issuers License”. The benefit in dealing with a Licensed Derivatives Issuer is that it places quite strict obligations on the person holding the license. These obligations include:
- Minimum capital requirements
- Segregation of client money to that of the licensee
- Fair dealing provisions, including pricing and not being able to make false statements
- High level of systems, business continuity and staff requirements
- Ability to raise complaints with a dispute resolution scheme and ultimately to the FMA.
- Licensees are subject to external audits that look at Financial Statements, meeting license capital requirements and risk audits that relate amoung other things that check that client money is accounted for and has been segregated at all times.
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
For more information I suggest that you see the FMA’s website https://www.fma.govt.nz/investors/ways-to-invest/derivatives/ and Financial Dispute Resolution website https://fdrs.org.nz/
Sorted by incorporation date (as of August 2021)
Full Legal Name | Jarden Securities Limited | Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited | CLSA Premium New Zealand Limited | CMC Markets NZ Limited | IG Markets Limited IG Australia PTY LTD | CTRL Investments Limited | Black Bull Group Limited | Plus500AU Pty Ltd | Rockfort Markets Limited | Trademax Global Markets (NZ) Limited | EncoreFX (NZ) Limited | AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd | BL Global Markets Limited |
Trading Name | PFD-NZ | CMC | IG Markets | HFTrading | Blackbull Markets | Plus500 | TMGM | Axitrader | BL Global | ||||
FMA Licence | Derivatives issuers, FSP3202 | Derivatives issuers, FSP28944 | Derivatives issuers, FSP1762 | Derivatives issuers, FSP41187 | Derivatives issuers, FSP18923 Derivatives issuers, FSP684191 | Derivatives issuers, FSP197465 | Derivatives issuers, FSP403326 | Derivatives issuers, FSP486026 | Derivatives issuers, FSP509766 | Derivatives issuers, FSP569807 | Derivatives issuers, FSP461386 | Derivatives issuers, FSP518226 | Derivatives issuers, FSP703051 (previously FSP414426) |
Licence granted status | 01.10.2016 Active | 27.02.2015 Active | 03.11.2016 Active | 12.12.2014 Active | 26.02.2015 Active | 20.01.2015 Active | 12.08.2020 Active | 30.09.2016 Active | 26.02.2018 Active | 27.08.2018 Active | 01.08.2016 Suspended at 24/04/2020 | 01.06.20018 Suspended at 29/07/2019 | 18.01.2016 Suspended at 17/10/2019 |
Incorpora tion date | 10.05.1995 | 10.08.1999 | 06.09.2001 | 26.10.2005 | 11.06.2009 | 30.03.2010 | 18.09.2014 | 06.07.2015 | 09.10.2015 | 28.07.2017 | 18.08.2015 | 13.09.2016 | 17.10.2019 |
Website | www.jarden.co.nz | www.pfd-nz.com | www.clsapremium.com | www.cmcmarkets.com | www.ig.com | www.ctrlinvestments.com www.hftrading.com | www.blackbullmarkets.com | www.plus500.co.nz | www.rockfortmarkets.com | www.tmgm.com | www.encorefx.co.nz | www.axi.com | www.blgm.co.nz |
Previous Names (in 5 years) | First NZ Capital Securities Limited | KVB Kunlun NZ Limited | MahiFX Limited/ Mahi Capital Limited | GPP Markets Limited | Carrick Just Capital Markets Limited | GCG Markets Limited | |||||||
Address in New Zealand | Level 14, 171 Featherston Street, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand | 12-26 Swanson Street, Level 8, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | Unit 401, Level 4, 8 Commerce Street, Achilles House, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | Level 25, 151 Queen Street, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | 21st Floor, 171 Featherston Street, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand | Level 13, 1 Albert Street, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | Level 20, 188 Quay Street, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | Bell Gully, 171 Featherston Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand | Level 2, 22 Fanshawe Street, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | Level One, 1 Kingdon Street, Newmarket, Auckland, 1023, New Zealand | The Liquidator, 2 Takutai Square, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | BDO AUCKLAND, Tracy ROWSELL, Level 4, 4 Graham St, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand | level 15, 55 Shortland Street, Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand |
Forex | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
CFDs | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Shares | no | no | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Options/ Futures/ ETF | no/no/no | no/no/no | no/no/yes | no/no/no | yes/no/yes | yes/yes/yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||
Cryptos | no | no | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
Spread page | See website | See website | See website | See website page and this page | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Commission charge | Pro: $1 per side/lot commission applies; Trader: Commission free | no information | no info about forex commission, juts CFD commission | 1. OTC account type: Commission-free for FX 2. DMA (Forex Direct) From $10 per $1 million | no commission | $6.00 R/T per Lot Fro ECN Prime account (No Commission for standard account ) | no commissions | From $0.07 per micro-lot($7)(No information $7 per round-turn or one way) | $3.5 ($7.0 round turn) Edge account type. No commission for Classic (Basic) account type. | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
Commission page on web | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | |||||
Leverage | 1:300 or 1:100 | up to 1:200 | 1:500 | 1:100,1:250 or 1:30(for Australian) | from 1:30 to 1:200 | up to 1:500 | up to 1:30 | 1:100 up to 1:500 | up to 1:200 | ||||
Leverage on web | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | See website | ||||
Trading platform | x24/cTrader/ MarketTrader/ CommTrade | MT4, FIX API | MT5 | MT4/CFD Next Generation platform | MT4/L 2 Dealer/ ProRealTime | MT4/Webtrader | MT4/MT5/WebTrader | Plus500 | MT4/Trader Workstation | MT4/MT5/IRESS | |||
Deposit Withdrawal | WindCave, POLi,Bank wire,PayPal | Bank Wire | See website | Mastercard/Visa, Skrill, Neteller/V Pay/Bank wire | Bank Wire, WindCave, Skrill, Neteller, China Union Pay, FasaPay | Bank wire, WindCave, Skrill, iDeal, BPAY, Klarna, GiroPay, PayPal | WindCave/POLi/Bank Wire | Bank Wire, Neteller, POLi, Skrill | |||||
Minimum deposit | 0 | $250/$5000/$10000 Account types: silver/gold/platinum | $200/$2000/$20000 Standard/Prime/ Institutional | Standard $500/ Pro $20000 | Same, $100/$100 Classic/Edge | ||||||||
Note | Jardens recently bought a long establish broker (OM Financial Limited) who had the C-Trader Platform. Jardens is a large Securities House. From public information, their commissions or spreads cannot be seen. Securities and funds management appears to be their main business, not Forex. | This firm offers Forex and CFD only. Their Forex trading cost, spread plus their commission ($2 RT = about 0.2 pips), appears competitive. They show live spreads on their website. https://www.pfd-nz.com/spread | This firm was previously known as KVB Kunlun NZ Limited. They have been subject to FMA related litigation See more See more on FMA CLSAP (formerly KVB Kunlun) ordered to pay $770,000 for anti-money laundering breaches | CMC have a number of licenses and is one of the larger Forex brokers. They have a NZ office. Trading costs are on the less competitive side. . | One of the larger Forex brokers with many types of contracts. Their Forex trading cost is on the less competitive side. Their address in New Zealand is law firm called Bell Gully. This is the same as PLUS500. They appear to not have a NZ physical office. IG has 2 Derivatives Issuer licenses in NZ under different company names: IG Markets Limited and IG Australia PTY LTD. IG Australia PTY LTD (NZBN:9429047618251; Company number:7639257) newly obtained a Derivatives Issuer license from FMA in July, 2021. | Formerly known as MahiFX Limited or Mahi Capital Limited Their Trading website www.hftrading.com has no company information and their company website www.ctrlinvestments.com has no trading information | A newly licensed broker – August 2020. The Forex minimum spread itself is narrow on their website but after including their commission ($6 RT = about 0.6 pips), their total cost is less competitive / average. They offer multi-trading platforms, MT4 MT5 and Webtrader. | One of the larger Forex brokers with many types of contracts. Their Forex trading cost is on the less competitive side. Their address in New Zealand is law firm – Bell Gully. This is the same as IG. They appear to not have a NZ physical office. | This firm offers many types of contracts. The Forex minimum spread itself is narrow on their website but after including their commission ($7RT = about 0.7 pips), their total cost is less competitive / average. They changed their name recently, July 2019. Formerly known as GPP Markets Limited | This firm offers many types of contracts. The Forex minimum spread itself is narrow on their website but after including their commission ($7RT = about 0.7 pips), their total cost is less competitive / average. They have changed their name recently. In May 2020 it was changed from Carrick Just Capital Markets Limited or CJC Market to Trademax Global Markets. | |||
Full Legal Name | Jarden Securities Limited | Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited | CLSA Premium New Zealand Limited | CMC Markets NZ Limited | IG Markets Limited and IG Australia PTY LTD | CTRL Investments Limited | Black Bull Group Limited | Plus500AU Pty Ltd | Rockfort Markets Limited | Trademax Global Markets (NZ) Limited | EncoreFX (NZ) Limited | AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd | BL Global Markets Limited |
(In case a broker has licenses in other countries, you have to pay attention that your application is with the New Zealand registered entity and that you have not signed with an entity located overseas, as your money may not be protected.)
I have put together a summary of information based on what I was looking for when I was looking for a broker. If I have published any information you feel is incorrect, please email me so I can correct it. My email address is: [email protected]
In addition to this, if anyone has a comparison webpage of other countries that shows the same information and is independent (free from advertising) please let me know so I can link to your website.
Disclaimer:
This website is for informational purposes only. This website does not provide investment advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation of any kind to buy or sell any investment products. Rates and terms set on third-party websites are subject to change without notice. Please note that this website is based on public information and has been summarized with my best effort, however I do not guarantee the accuracy. Please make your own decisions on an informed basis and conduct your own research.