Wellington-based PledgeMe and Auckland-based Snowball Effect are the first to gain equity crowd funding licences under the new Financial Markets Conduct Act.

New Zealand's market watchdog says a spate of prosecutions shows the consequences for firms which don't file financial statements on time.

Unlisted, the share trading platform run by Armillary Private Capital, is mulling an application to be a registered market or seek to be exempted.

The boss of New Zealand's first peer-to-peer lending service, Harmoney, says the online platform will shake up the personal loan market and give retail investors a new option.

Seven directors that raise funds from the public have been charged by market regulators for allegedly breaching the Financial Reporting Act.

The Financial Markets Authority has issued a favourable report card on the NZX and the way it handles its statutory obligations.

Confidentiality agreement helped secure $22m payback deal, says agency head.

Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett has yet to be inducted into the club, writes Fran O'Sullivan. That's why he brings a refreshing outsider's view to the task of being New Zealand's markets watchdog.

The Supreme Court has agreed with Sir Doug Graham and three other Lombard Finance board members that their home detention sentences were too harsh.

The Financial Markets Authority won't wait until receivers have finished chasing funds from convicted finance company directors. when considering civil cases.

One of the first companies hoping to offer equity crowd funding says it already has 11 firms lined up wanting to raise money this year.

Stock exchange operator NZX says it will ramp up its efforts to help investors understand how it regulates the market this year.

A former chief executive of Bluechip and director Viaduct Capital Nick Wevers has died and criminal charges filed against him have now been withdrawn.

Three convicted Bridgecorp directors have reached an $18.9 million settlement with the failed finance company's receivers.

Law firm Bell Gully has published new guidelines about what to do if the Financial Markets Authority raids your business.

Investment market players are gearing up for the biggest shake-up in more than decade.

Rob Everett, a UK-based regulatory consultant and former investment banker, has been named chief executive of the Financial Markets Authority, replacing Sean Hughes.

Police asset freezing action against two jailed Capital + Merchant directors is unprecedented.

A High Court judge has made restraining orders over property linked to two jailed Capital + Merchant Finance directors, with the police looking to eventually seize the assets.

The man behind NZ's largest Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in jail - a punishment deemed too lenient by one of his victims.

NZ's market regulator has cancelled the allegedly misleading offer documents of a company that claimed it would use investor money to set up dialysis clinics.

US crowdfunding platform Kickstarter - which has helped raise more than $US800 million for creative projects - will be opening its doors to Kiwis in just over four weeks.