Excelsior Markets takes NZ regulator to court over deregistration from FSP list

Excelsior Markets, a Forex broker with an office in Auckland, is challenging a decision by New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to remove it from the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR).

A report by NZ Herald says the company filed an appeal against the deregistration at the High Court at Auckland this morning.

The main point of disagreement between the regulator and the company appears to be the degree of service that the broker provides from overseas and within New Zealand. The company’s lawyer, Michael Locke, stressed that the trading platform the company was operating was based on overseas servers, but the company’s office was in New Zealand, orders from clients were taken there. Also, the administrative work was done in New Zealand and the company had a local director – Steven Green.

Excelsior Markets’ parent company is based in the United Arab Emirates and is wholly-owned by a Pakistani national.

In its Enforcement and investigations report for fiscal year 2015, the FMA said that 28 firms were deregistered under its orders during the period, with the misuse of the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) by offshore companies being the main concern for the regulator.

Earlier this week, another of the 28 deregistered firms – Vivier Markets, successfully appealed FMA’s actions, thus creating a legal precedent for other companies to follow.

The data file for the broker from the FSP register.