To come up with this list, we have tested several forex brokers holding FMA licenses in New Zealand.

We opened a real account and deposited between $4,000 and $5,000 with each broker. We placed real trades in each popular market to get the real spreads.

We also reached out to customer support to solve issues that we had encountered. Finally, we withdrew our funds to see if there is any issue with the withdrawal process.

We handpick the best forex brokers based on our trading data and experience as a trader.

New Zealand FMA Regulations for Forex Brokers

Forex brokers must be registered and authorized by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to operate in New Zealand. FMA was formed in May 2011 after New Zealand Parliament passed the Financial Markets Bill to streamline regulations in the financial services industry.

FMA’s official website is www.fma.govt.nz, and we recommend investors and traders follow the regulator on Twitter, @FMAmedia, for important regulatory updates.

FMA was set up after several financial scams in New Zealand. The agency inherited its roles from the country’s Securities Commission and is tasked to have better regulatory oversight of the financial market players, including forex brokers. FMA can issue or revoke licenses, supervise operations, and also regulate business conduct for fair practices.

FMA is one of the few reputed regulators allowing leverage as high as 500:1 and offers negative balance protection to traders. It also offers a compensation scheme of NZ$200,000 to protect clients’ funds if the broker goes bankrupt.

Some of the key highlights of trading with FMA-regulated brokers:

🏦RegulatorFinancial Markets Authority (FMA)
📊Max. Leverage500:1
🛡️Is It safe to tradeYes
🔒Negative Balance ProtectionYes
💰Compensation SchemeNZ$200,000

Best Forex Brokers in New Zealand

To select the best FMA-regulated forex brokers, we have tested and reviewed several forex brokers. We opened a live account, deposited real money, and placed real trades with each broker. With our test, we got a picture of the real spreads and commissions, trading platforms, deposit and withdrawal conditions, educational resources, and customer services.

  • BlackBull Markets – Best Overall Forex Broker in New Zealand
  • IG Markets – Best Forex Broker for Beginners in New Zealand
  • Hantec Markets – Best MT4 Broker in New Zealand
  • CMC Markets – Best Forex Trading Platform in New Zealand
  • Plus500 – Best Forex Broker with Lowest Spread & Trading Fees in New Zealand

Best Overall Forex Broker in New Zealand

We picked BlackBull Markets as the overall best forex broker in New Zealand. 

Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, BlackBull Markets offers the overall best trading services to Kiwi traders. The broker is regulated in New Zealand and Seychelles and has operations in globally many countries.

Blackbull’s offerings include trading with forex and CFDs of indices, stocks, and commodities with almost 300 instruments. The spreads offered by the broker are also on the lower side, along with options of two industry-standard trading platforms: MT4 and MT5.

Best Forex Broker for Beginners in New Zealand

We picked IG Markets as the best forex broker for beginners in New Zealand. 

For beginner traders good educational resources are important, and IG Markets excels in offering this. Regulated in many jurisdictions, including New Zealand, IG Markets also provides a user-friendly trading environment, which is very suitable for beginners.

The broker offers trading in several markets giving new traders many options to choose from. Further, it has many trading tools and market research tools that can be mastered by the new traders.

Best MT4 Broker in New Zealand

We picked Hantec Markets as the best MT4 broker in New Zealand. 

Established in 1990, Hantec Markets is one of the big names in the Asia-Pacific region. It holds operating licenses from several regulators and offers excellent forex and CFD trading services.

Hantec Markets is also known for offering trading services solely on the MetaTrader 4 platform to both retail and professional traders. It offers an excellent set of indicators and analysis tools, and, MT4 being the only platform, all are integrated into it.

Hantec Markets offers MT4 clients on both desktop and mobile devices.

Best Forex Trading Platform NZ

We picked CMC Markets as the best forex trading platform in New Zealand.

When it comes to forex trading, CMC Markets tops the list simply because of the number of currency pairs it is offering. The broker offers a total of 339 currency pairs for trading.

CMC Markets offers trading on the industry-standard MT4 platform, as well as its proprietary Next Generation Platform. It also has some of the lowest spreads.

Lowest Spread & Trading Fees in New Zealand

We picked Plus500 as the best forex broker with the lowest spread and trading fees in New Zealand.

Plus500 offers lower than average spreads on currency pairs. Our testing of the broker finds that the average spread for EUR/USD pair is 0.8 pips, which is almost half of the industry average of 1.6 pips.

Additionally, Plus500 does not charge any extra trading fees for opening and closing positions.

FMA-Regulated Forex Brokers List & Review

Here is a list of some of the major FMA-regulated New Zealand forex brokers:

New Zealand Forex BrokerFMA RegulatedVisit Broker
BlackBull MarketsYesVisit BlackBull Markets
IG MarketsYesVisit IG Markets
Hantec MarketsYesVisit Hantec Markets
CMC MarketsYesVisit CMC Markets
Plus500YesVisit Plus500
Jarden SecuritiesYesVisit Jarden Securities
Rockfort MarketsYesVisit Rockfort Markets
CLSA PremiumYesVisit CLSA Premium

FAQ & More on New Zealand Brokers

Traders usually have many questions related to trading generic trading-related queries. We tried to pick and answer some of the most important queries related to FMA-regulated brokers.

How to Verify FMA-Regulated Brokers?

The registration details of any FMA-regulated forex broker can be checked by visiting the regulator’s website.

Go to www.fma.govt.nz and select ‘licensed and reporting entities’ under the ‘compliance’ section. The regulator maintains a list of all regulated entities and names all forex brokers can be found under ‘derivatives issuers’.

BlackBull Markets FMA (Financial Markets Authority) Registration
BlackBull Markets FMA Registration

Forex Options Brokers in New Zealand

Forex options give buyers the right, but not an obligation, to purchase the currencies at the expiry of the contract. They are similar to options contracts of any other asset class instruments.

Some regulated forex options brokers in New Zealand are:

MT4 Forex Brokers in New Zealand

MT4 is the leading forex and CFD trading platform. Some of the FMA-regulated best MT4 brokers are:

High Leverage Forex Brokers in New Zealand

New Zealand’s FMA allows forex brokers to offer leverage up to 500:1 on top currency pairs. This means any FMA-regulated forex broker can legally offer such a high margin level. 

Some of the high-leverage brokers in New Zealand are:

ECN Forex Brokers in New Zealand

ECN brokers offer direct market access and raw spreads to the traders. These brokers do not take positions against the traders and usually make money from charging commissions.

 Some of the ECN forex brokers in New Zealand are:

Tax in New Zealand for Forex Trading

New Zealand does not have any special taxation rules for Forex traders. All the capital gained through trading currency pairs and other types of financial instruments is considered income, which means that you will need to pay regular taxes on it.

In the country, taxation rates depend on the amount of income. The minimum rate starts from 10.5% and reaches up to 39%, for income that exceeds $180.000 annually.

There are many responsibilities that traders must take into account when it comes to tax issues. If they avoid or delay paying, this may lead to fines

Author of this review

By George Rossi

Author of this review

I am a well-rounded financial services professional experienced in fundamental and technical analysis, global macroeconomic research, foreign exchange and commodity markets and an independent trader.

Now I am passionate about reviewing and comparing forex brokers.

Everything you find on BrokerTested is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology

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