Pacific Financial Derivatives Review for New Zealand Traders

Is Pacific Financial Derivatives safe? FMA licence, Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited

Yes, Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited holds a derivatives issuer licence from the Financial Markets Authority, granted on 27 February 2015 and shown as Active on the register when I read it on 19 September 2026. The register prints the trading name PFD-NZ. The company also holds the registration FSP28944 on the Financial Service Providers Register, and that registration is not the licence: the licence is the separate thing that authorises the issuing of derivatives to a New Zealand client. You can check the derivatives issuer licence and the full FMA register for yourself.

The company published its own product disclosure statement, dated 11 June 2024, at pfd-nz.com, and I have read it page by page. The Financial Markets Authority requires a licensed derivatives provider to give a client a product disclosure statement before they trade, so if you open an account this is what you will be handed. It forms one of three documents in the Client Services Agreement, alongside the Client Information Form and the General Terms and Conditions (page 18).

What the FMA licence covers

The FMA states that trading forex through contracts linked to an exchange rate is trading a derivative, and that anyone offering those contracts in New Zealand must hold a derivatives issuer licence from it. It classes retail forex trading as derivatives trading, not currency dealing.

It also recommends New Zealanders avoid overseas forex services it has not licensed, even where an overseas regulator appears to cover them. The FMA published a warning on 8 January 2025 about pfdmarkets.com, a website it says was purporting to be registered in New Zealand by misusing the details of the genuine company, Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited, and its warning states that the company has no association with that website.

Pacific Financial Derivatives client money protection and dispute scheme

Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited is a New Zealand registered company and a licensed derivatives issuer under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, and the Financial Markets Authority has regulatory oversight over the company (page 17).

Who a New Zealand client contracts with

Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited offers margin foreign exchange and contracts for difference, and it is the issuer and provider of them (page 5). The company accepts money only and does not accept property (page 16).

Where a New Zealand client’s money is held

Money paid for margin and fees is held in separate trust accounts for client funds (page 16). No interest is paid to the client on money held in the trading account (page 16). A balance is kept in the client trust account to meet obligations such as client withdrawals, and the remaining funds are forwarded to counterparties and applied against margin, fee and settlement obligations (page 16). The hedging counterparties the company deals with include CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, Forex Capital Markets Ltd, Advanced Markets UK Ltd and TF Global Markets (UK) Ltd (page 16).

What happens if the company fails

That money is not regarded as part of the company’s assets and cannot be accessed by the company except to pay for hedging contracts, fees and margin calls (page 16). Once money moves from the client trust account to a counterparty it is no longer afforded the protection of being held in trust (page 16). The company’s creditworthiness has not been assessed by an approved rating agency (page 13). The Financial Markets Authority names insolvency of the provider as a risk to read the statement for, and says a client may be an unsecured creditor.

How to complain, and who hears it

A complaint should first be made in writing and sent to the company’s Risk & Compliance Manager, and the company confirms receipt and endeavours to investigate and respond within 10 days (page 17). The external scheme is Financial Dispute Resolution, an approved dispute resolution scheme under the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 (page 17). Financial Dispute Resolution charges the complainant no fee to investigate or resolve a complaint (page 17).

Pacific Financial Derivatives at a glance: 9 key facts

The table below sets out what the register and the statement establish, line by line: who you contract with, what the licence covers, where your money sits, what it costs to trade and withdraw, and how margin and close-out work. I have not tested the broker, so every line traces to one of those two documents.

Pacific Financial Derivatives deposits and withdrawals

Client trades can only be placed when there are cleared funds in the client’s account (page 16).

Withdrawals

When you close a contract and request a withdrawal, the USD balance is converted to the requested currency at the exchange rate the company quotes (page 13). A telegraphic transfer fee of $25 is payable by you on funds the company sends, and local transfers are not charged transfer fees (page 15). All fees are charged in New Zealand dollars or the equivalent in the foreign currency being transferred (page 15).

Pacific Financial Derivatives accounts

An account is opened only after consideration, and the company reserves the right to refuse to open accounts for any person (page 7). Accounts are denominated in US dollars, and margins, profits, losses, interest and rollover fees are all calculated in USD (page 13). The company charges no fees or commissions to enter a contract: the spread, incorporated into the quoted price and not an additional charge, is one source of its revenue, and it also earns revenue from any interest received on funds held in the trading account or in the trust accounts (page 14). A position held overnight, at 5 pm New York time (EST), is rolled to the next working day, which results in the client paying a swap charge or receiving a swap credit (page 14).

Pacific Financial Derivatives trading platforms

Swap rates are available through the MT4 client terminal, which the statement names as the trading platform (page 15). You reach the swap rate fees by right clicking on a symbol in Market Watch and opening Specification (page 15).

Pacific Financial Derivatives markets

The CFDs offered are based on currencies, metals, commodities, indices and stocks, and the CFD contracts offered do change from time to time (page 6). Instead of paying the whole face value of an FX contract, you pay a margin of typically 1 per cent of the face value of the currency traded (page 5). If leverage were 100:1, you could gain exposure to a EUR/USD 100,000 contract for an initial margin that is a fraction of its face value (page 7, worked example). A contract’s size can be any amount equal to or greater than 1,000 of a particular trading currency (page 9). If you are new to these instruments, you can read what a CFD is and how it is treated in New Zealand.

Pacific Financial Derivatives leverage and margin for New Zealand clients

If equity falls short of the required margin the client must either deposit additional funds or close out existing open positions (page 7).

How leverage interacts with margin on this account

Pacific Financial Derivatives fixes the margin call level at 100% on the lower leverage terms and closes contracts out if equity falls below 50%, and on the higher leverage terms it fixes the margin call level at 150% and closes contracts out if equity falls below 100% (page 8). When a margin warning is displayed on the client’s trading terminal, the balance bar turns red (page 8). In the event of a failure to make margin payments the company may reduce or close all open contracts without further notice, and the client will be liable for any shortfall (page 12). Stop loss orders are not guaranteed, and their execution depends on market volatility and liquidity (page 13).

Pacific Financial Derivatives customer support

The office address is Level 8, 12-26 Swanson St, Auckland Central 1010, with the phone number +64-9-6320121 (page 17).

Should you open an account with Pacific Financial Derivatives?

Yes, if what you want is a retail account with a licensed derivatives issuer, because the licence and the statement are what you can verify, and the trust account terms are the kind of commitment I would read for. The FMA describes leveraged forex trading as borrowing money to place a bet, with the full borrowed amount repayable on a loss, and it says it regularly receives complaints and enquiries from consumers who have lost money in online forex trading.

Before you put money in, ask the company which leverage tier it would place you on, because whether you are a client on lower leverage or higher leverage decides the margin call level your positions trade under. Get that answer in writing, then read the statement’s close-out terms against it and see whether the two match.