New Zealand's market regulator has just added five new entities to its list. They offer investment services for retail traders, asset management, or term deposits, and some have been classified as clones of fully operational institutions.

New Zealand's FMA Adds 5 New Firms to Warning List

Within the last 24 hours, the Financial Market Authority (FMA) of New Zealand updated its warnings and alerts list five times. The list now includes Ocean Trade, Cato Asset Management, Bronte FX, Co-operative Bank, and Bank of China.

Ocean Trade operates under twelve different web addresses, using the officially registered data of Mercado Limited (registration number 7353856). Mercado's director confirmed to the FMA that his entity has nothing to do with Ocean Trade.

“ocean-trade.org; perfectglobaltrade.org; livetradeinvestment.com; cryptoprofitrade.com; coinminetinvest.com; cryptoprofitrade.com; cnkglobalinvestment.com; stakefunds.org; episodegrab.org; upliftfxinvest.net; coinfinancefxtrading.com; realearners.net; coinfinancefxtrading.com,” the FMA listed the websites associated with Ocean Trade, warning the public to be cautious.

Another fraudulent company, Cato Asset Management, as the name suggests, offers asset management services. With Bronte FX, which allows trading in CFDs, the regulator has classified it as an “imposter website.” Besides using the licensing data of other entities, dishonest companies also try to copy the look of their websites to confuse consumers. In the case of Bronte, the FMA received information that clients were having trouble withdrawing their funds.

The last two warnings concern the Co-operative Bank and Bank of China offering "fake term deposits.” Scammers offer term deposits with unusually high interest rates or returns to entice investors. However, the rates are often unrealistic and too good to be true.

“Scammers are sending out highly professional-looking product disclosure statements featuring Bank of China’s name, logo, address, and registration details,” the FMA commented on the warning against the fake Bank of China.

Number of Scams in New Zealand Decreases

However, there has been an increase in websites impersonating registered entities in New Zealand, and the number of potential financial scams and activities of unlicensed businesses has significantly decreased since mid-2022.

The FMA's recent report for 2023 highlights this trend, showing a decrease in warnings and alerts compared to the previous year, with 47 instances of suspected scams, a significant drop from the 105 cases reported in 2022.

However, the FMA has recognized a new trend in deceptive practices, adding a “imposter websites” category to its report. This category reflects the growing number of fraudulent actors and companies imitating licensed firms. Despite the FMA issuing 29 warnings in this new category, the total number of alerts in 2023 was 89, down from 111 in 2022, indicating a general decline in such fraudulent activities.

One of the latest cases included in the report is a fine of $900,000 that Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited had to pay for violating anti-money laundering laws.