CMC Markets Review New Zealand 2026

Is CMC Markets safe? FMA licence, CMC Markets NZ Limited

Yes, CMC Markets NZ Limited holds an active derivatives issuer licence from New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority, granted on 12 December 2014, and it is registered on the Financial Service Providers Register as FSP41187. FSP registration is not the licence: the register entry carries both, and it is the derivatives issuer licence that authorises the issuing of derivatives.

Some of the abbreviations on this page are expanded to the regulator's full name: a broker regulated by ASIC is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; by FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority; by CIRO, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.

The product disclosure statement, on page 2, says the entity is regulated in New Zealand by the FMA under its derivatives issuer licence, under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. It also says the FMA’s role in licensing is limited and does not imply approval or endorsement of the business.

FMA regulation and global licences

The group’s other entities are licensed by ASIC, the FCA (United Kingdom), BaFin (Germany), CIRO (Canada), MAS, and BMA. None of these covers a New Zealand client of CMC Markets NZ Limited: a New Zealand reader contracts with this entity and its FMA licence, and no other.

Our guide to the FMA’s derivatives issuer licences and the full licensed register explains what this licence covers and how to check it yourself.

CMC Markets client money protection and dispute scheme

A New Zealand client contracts with CMC Markets NZ Limited, which issues both the product disclosure statement and the products it describes, on page 20. Of the brokers in the rated New Zealand set, four contract through Australian companies, and the rest contract through companies incorporated in New Zealand: CMC Markets NZ Limited, Black Bull Group Limited, Zero Markets (NZ) Limited, EC Markets Financial Limited, Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited, ACE Markets Limited, and Jarden Securities Limited.

History and ownership

The broker’s New Zealand site, read on 20 September 2026, advertises twenty years on the ground in New Zealand. The statement names CMC Markets UK plc as the counterparty for every contract the New Zealand company enters into, via back-to-back or covering transactions (page 18), and sets out no shareholder, parent company or shareholding for the New Zealand entity anywhere in the document.

Where a New Zealand client’s money is held

Client money is held in one or more client bank accounts with a registered bank in New Zealand, held on trust, as the statement sets out on page 18. Money owed to clients, which may include client gains, moves from the operating cash account to the segregated trust account daily, and before that daily transfer the client is an unsecured creditor for the money owed, on page 15. The statement calls the firm’s duty to pay moneys due to the client under the agreement an unsecured obligation, which leaves the client an unsecured creditor of CMC Markets, on page 18. CMC Markets retains any interest on client money held in the segregated client bank account, and the statement says this may be considered a fee, on page 18. Client money is not used to meet obligations incurred when hedging with other counterparties, which are funded from the firm’s operating cash account, on page 18.

Who a New Zealand client contracts with

Trades are off-exchange with CMC Markets as the counterparty to every trade, and can only be closed with CMC Markets, as the statement sets out on page 5.

How to complain, and who hears it

The dispute scheme is Financial Services Complaints Limited, an independent scheme approved by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, at Level 4, 101 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145, phone 0800 347 257, on page 20. The firm has 20 business days to respond to a complaint before it may go to the scheme, and there is no cost to the client to use its services, on page 20.

CMC Markets at a glance: 4 key facts

If you are a New Zealand reader deciding whether this broker deserves a closer look, start here. The table gathers the essentials in one place, each from our global broker test or Ross Collins’s spread tests, and the licence and client money facts are in the sections above.

CMC Markets spreads and commission, measured

This page prices one account for this brand, a single spread account with no commission, and its spread comes from Ross Collins’s spread tests. No figure in this section comes from a New Zealand test. One pip on a standard lot of EUR/USD is US$10.00, which is how the spread below becomes its round turn.

One spread, no commission

The tested EUR/USD spread is 0.8 pips, with no commission on top, for a round turn of US$8.00 on 1.0 lot. The round turn is stated in US dollars, and the spread comes from Ross Collins’s spread tests. The spread was at its minimum for 81.88 per cent of the time in our zero-spread testing. How we measure tested spreads is set out on our tightest tested spreads methodology page, read on 3 September 2026.

What it costs to trade with CMC Markets

Beyond the round turn set out in the spreads section above, the product disclosure statement names further charges a New Zealand trader can incur, and it is worth knowing which ones exist before the first trade.

Other fees a New Zealand trader should check

The product disclosure statement for the New Zealand entity sets out no inactivity fee and no Wednesday swap rule. It does carry a currency conversion cost. If you trade a product denominated in a currency different to your account currency, every amount, including margin, holding costs and realised profits or losses, is converted at the CMC Currency Conversion Rate, which the statement says may be different to those available elsewhere (page 14). Commissions and guaranteed stop loss order premiums are charged in the product currency and then converted at that rate (page 17), and the same rate multiplies the holding cost (pages 17 and 18). On a long option CFD, your loss includes any loss from movements in that rate (page 7). The statement attaches no figure to that rate, no margin over a market rate and no ceiling. Beyond the spread, the statement names commissions and guaranteed stop loss order premiums, holding costs, market data fees, interest and administration charges (pages 17 and 18). Commission is charged each time a trade is entered into in certain products, with a possible minimum (page 17). Holding costs are charged on positions open at the end of each calendar day, 5pm New York time, with the local equivalent varying with daylight saving, and for shares listed on the New Zealand Exchange the holding cost is calculated on positions held at 9am NZST (page 17). A guaranteed stop loss order premium, the rate displayed on the platform multiplied by the number of units, is debited immediately each time a GSLO is placed (page 17). Activating certain products on a platform can require a market data fee, which covers what CMC Markets pays its price vendors (page 18). The statement names administration charges as a further charge and refers the reader to the Offer and Margin Information document for details of them (page 18).

CMC Markets deposits and withdrawals

The product disclosure statement defines an account’s Cash as the money a client has paid in, plus realised profits and amounts credited, less realised losses, deductions and money already withdrawn (page 10). The amount a client can withdraw is not the Cash figure itself but the lesser of Available Equity and Cash, and a negative Cash value must be cleared immediately by a payment large enough to return Cash to zero or above (page 10).

Deposit methods (NZ clients)

The statement sets out no deposit method for the New Zealand entity, and it names no funding fee. What governs a deposit once it is made is the client money terms above, not any funding rule the statement sets out.

Withdrawals

The statement sets out no withdrawal timetable, no withdrawal fee and no processing window for the New Zealand entity. A reader should not take an expectation about withdrawal speed from anywhere on this page, because the statement does not give one.

CMC Markets accounts and minimum deposit

The product disclosure statement names no account types for the New Zealand entity, and it states no base currency list. The per-product rates for any applicable commission are set out in the Product Library, which is a separate document from the product disclosure statement (page 17).

Minimum deposit

The minimum deposit is US$0, one figure for the brand from our global broker test, with no per-account breakdown held for it. No New Zealand account was tested for this figure: it is the brand’s, not the entity’s.

CMC Markets trading platforms

Our global broker test holds four platform entries for the CMC Markets brand worldwide: MT4, MT5, TradingView and a proprietary platform, with the test’s own platform line reading “Next Generation, MT4, TradingView (MT5 in Canada and offshore)”. The product disclosure statement for the New Zealand entity names two platforms, The CMC Markets Platform and the MetaTrader Platform (page 2). A demo account is offered on the broker’s New Zealand site.

Copy and social trading

The statement names no copy trading or social trading product for the New Zealand entity. It names the two platforms above and nothing besides them, so a reader wanting copy trading would have to look outside this entity’s statement.

CMC Markets app

CMC Markets's app CMC: CFD Trading is rated 3.6 out of 5 from 82 ratings on the New Zealand App Store, checked 1 October 2026.

View on the App Store

CMC Markets execution speed and slippage

Our global broker test measured a market order fill of 180 ms and a limit order fill of 138 ms for this brand. Neither figure was measured on a New Zealand account or against CMC Markets NZ Limited: both come from the same global test, which covers this brand’s worldwide offering and not the New Zealand entity.

A fill time tells a reader how quickly an order was accepted, and nothing about the price it was accepted at. Two orders filled in identical time can land on different prices, and a fast fill on a slipping price can cost more than a slow fill on a stable one. A fill time is one half of execution, and the price a reader actually receives is the other half, which no fill figure on its own can speak to.

CMC Markets markets and instrument counts

The product disclosure statement sets out six product classes: shares, indices, currencies, commodities, treasuries and cryptocurrencies (page 5). It gives classes and not counts, and it states no maximum leverage for any of them. The broker’s New Zealand site separately advertises more than 12,000 instruments on the Next Generation platform. What a CFD is and how it is treated in New Zealand is covered in our guide to CFD trading in New Zealand, and the trading session in New Zealand time is set out in our New Zealand market hours guide.

CMC Markets leverage and margin for New Zealand clients

The product disclosure statement sets out the margin terms for this account, with margin calculated using the margin rates for each product, which may be broken into tiers depending on the size of the position (page 11). When margin runs short, the statement says on page 2 that additional margin may be required at short notice and can be substantial.

How leverage interacts with margin on this account

The platforms automatically initiate account close-out once account value reaches or falls below the close-out level, as the statement sets out on page 11, and the statement gives no number for that level. A close-out warning may be sent, and the statement says on page 16 not to rely on the platforms giving it. The statement names a Close-Out Warning Level for accounts where the firm has set one, and the platforms will attempt to notify you when your account value falls below it, though it tells you not to rely on that warning (page 16). It gives no number for that warning level. The order for closing positions is set out in the applicable Terms, a separate document from the statement, and on certain platforms you may be able to select a close-out method (page 11); the statement itself sets out no margin call rule.

CMC Markets customer support

CMC Markets NZ Limited’s registered office is Level 39, 23 Albert Street, Auckland 1010 (product disclosure statement, page 19). The statement gives two firm phone numbers, 0800 26 26 27, labelled for the Client Management Team and account opening queries and only in New Zealand (page 19), and +64 (0)9 359 1200 on the back cover (page 23). Page 19 lists the remaining contact channels as a postal address, PO Box 106645, Auckland 1143, an email address, [email protected], and a web address, cmcmarkets.co.nz, though the statement prints no support hours anywhere.

How CMC Markets compares to IG Group and Axi

On cost, both rivals are more expensive on the like-for-like account. IG Group’s one spread, no commission account carries a published average EUR/USD spread of 1.13 pips and a round turn of US$11.30, and Axi’s carries a tested spread of 1.45 pips and a round turn of US$14.50. This broker’s round turn, stated in the spreads section, is below both.

On score, the published global scores put CMC Markets between the two: IG Group scores 68.2 out of 100 and Axi 64.5 out of 100, from the same global test panel as this broker’s score. IG Group contracts in New Zealand through IG Australia Pty Ltd and Axi through AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd, both Australian companies.

What other review sites say about CMC Markets

These are ratings of CMC Markets from other platforms, read on the date shown and expressed on each platform's scale, so you can weigh them against our own score.

Platform	Rating	Volume	Read on
Trustpilot	4.3 / 5	3,479	1 October 2026
TradingView	4.2 / 5	1,230	2 October 2026

CMC Markets holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.3 out of 5 from 3,479 reviews, checked 1 October 2026.

On TradingView, CMC Markets is rated 4.2 out of 5 from 1,230 ratings, checked 2 October 2026. The TradingView profile for CMC Markets shows 11.3K traders, the count of those who have connected an account through TradingView. TradingView shows the Best 2025 badge on the profile.

App Store and Google Play ratings for CMC Markets

Our score is based on published criteria and is not influenced by these third-party ratings.

Should you open an account with CMC Markets?

Yes, if you want a derivatives issuer licensed by the FMA and accept the terms the New Zealand statement sets out, including the off-exchange counterparty standing and the one tested cost.

I have not tested the New Zealand entity, and neither has anyone at this site. The spread figure comes from Ross Collins’s spread tests and the other measured figures from our global broker test, every term of the New Zealand offering comes from the product disclosure statement, the FMA register and the broker’s New Zealand site, and the search interest figure comes from Google Ads search volume for New Zealand. Before depositing, check the FMA register entry for yourself and read the statement’s client money terms, including the daily transfer timing and what the firm retains.