Preparing to register as a financial service provider

Contact and business details

• Full legal name and any other names you're known by or have been known by previously.
• Date of birth and gender (will not be publicly available).
• If you have previously been registered as an FSP, those FSP numbers.
• Residential address (will not be publicly available).
• Business address — the physical address that you provide financial services from.
• Any trading names you use, and
• An address we can use for communication, along with your business and personal email addresses. We use these addresses to contact the FSP – they are not made publicly available.

Financial services

• What financial services you'll be providing. Some services may require you to be licensed by the relevant licensing authority.
• Whether you’ll be providing financial services to retail clients or only to wholesale clients.

Reporting entity status

• Whether the FSP is a reporting entity under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 that provides financial services. If yes, you must confirm who the AML/CFT supervisor(s) are.

Filing month

• The month you'll file your annual confirmation. Your first annual confirmation will be due next year in the month you choose. You can agree to the month that you are assigned as a default, or change it to any month other than December or January.

Threshold declaration

• Confirmation that you expect to provide financial services to persons in New Zealand above the minimum annual threshold, being:
  • 10 New Zealand resident financial services clients; and
  • $10,000 of financial services transactions in total with its New Zealand resident clients.

In the first 6 months after registration, the provider must have achieved half of the threshold, that is, 5 New Zealand clients and $5k of transactions with New Zealand resident clients.

Contacts and business details

If your business is already on a Companies Office register

You'll need your entity's name, the number assigned to it on the Companies Office register, or its New Zealand Business Number (NZBN). You can find these by searching the relevant Companies Office register.

• Companies Register
• Limited Partnerships Register
• All Companies Office registers

You’ll also need to provide:

• any trading names you use
• if you have previously been registered as an FSP, those FSP numbers
• your business address – the physical address that you provide financial services from
• an address we can use for communication, including an email address.
  We use these addresses to contact the FSP – they are not made publicly available.

If your entity is not on any Companies Office register

If you’re not registered on any Companies Office register, you’ll need to provide the following details:

• The name the FSP is to be registered under, or the entity’s registered name overseas.
• Country where incorporated.
• Incorporation or registration number
• Any trading names you use
• Your business address — the physical address that you provide financial services from
• An address we can use for communications, including an email address. These addresses are used to contact the FSP, they are not publicly available.

Your directors and other personnel

For every individual who is listed as a director, controlling owner or senior manager of your entity, you must provide:

• their full legal name, including middle name if the individual has one
• any other names they're known by or have been known by previously
• their date of birth and gender
• their residential address.

Directors

If your entity is a company on the New Zealand Companies Register, the names and addresses of the directors will be copied from that register into this application. You’ll need to check those details are correct and add:

• any other names they're known by or have been known by previously
• date of birth and gender.

For other entities you’ll need to provide all details.

When completing the director details section for entity types, a director may be an individual or an entity, as defined here:

• in relation to a partnership (other than a limited partnership), any partner
• in relation to a limited partnership, any general partner
• in relation to a body corporate or unincorporated, other than a company, partnership, or limited partnership, any person occupying a position in the body that is comparable with that of a director of a company
• in relation to any other person, that person.

Controlling owners

A controlling owner of an FSP is the person, company or other entity who beneficially owns 50 per cent or more of the FSP. The controlling or beneficial owner is not always the registered owner.

Senior managers

A senior manager of an FSP – for example, a chief executive or chief financial officer – holds a position that allows them to exercise significant influence over the management or administration of the FSP. A senior manager cannot be a director.

When applying to register as an entity, you’ll also need to provide, or confirm, the following information:

Financial services

• What financial services you'll be providing. Some services may require you to be licensed by the relevant authority.
• Whether you’ll be providing financial services to retail clients or only to wholesale clients.

Reporting entity status

• Whether the FSP is a reporting entity under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 that provides financial services. If so, you must confirm who the AML/CFT supervisors are.

Filing month

• The month you'll file your annual confirmation. This will default to the month of your entity’s annual filing obligation in its home register, for example, company annual return month. You can keep this month or change it to any month other than December or January.

Threshold declaration

• Confirmation that your FSP expects to provide financial services to persons in New Zealand above the minimum annual threshold, being:
  • 10 New Zealand resident financial services clients; and
  • $10,000 of financial services transactions in total with its New Zealand resident clients.

In the first 6 months after registration, the provider must have achieved half of the threshold, for example, 5 New Zealand clients and $5k of transactions with New Zealand resident clients.