New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) earlier today published its Annual Report 2015, which covers its work for the 12 months to June 30, 2015. The document is landmark to the degree that it is the first report published under the fully implemented Financial Markets Conduct (FMC) Act.
As usual, we focus on the information related to Forex companies.
The FMA says that it received 1,051 complaints during the year, a number which is 25% higher than a year ago, with a big part of the complaints concerning online FX trading platforms.
The watchdog mentions the investigation into Arena Capital, trading as BlackfortFX, as the main reason for the increase in the number of complaints. Many of the complaints came after the FMA announced its investigation and urged investors to contact it.
The regulator says it has ongoing concerns about the high level of complaints about online foreign exchange trading platforms. It stresses the importance of its project to deregister companies it has concerns about from the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR).
This comments come after earlier this week Forex broker Excelsior Markets took the FMA to court over its decision to strike off the company from the FSPR. The battle among deregistered Forex companies and the regulator seems to be just starting…
The FMA directed the deregistration of 28 companies from the FSPR during the year to June 30, 2015, and secured compensations of NZD 51.1 million to investors.
To view the full FMA report, click here.