Deregistration of a financial service provider (FSP) by the Registrar
When we may deregister your FSP – and how to object
The Registrar may decide to deregister your FSP, or be instructed to do so. Where we’ve initiated the deregistration, we'll notify you of our decision and you'll have 20 working days to lodge an objection.
Reasons we deregister an FSP
Legislation outlines the reasons why the Registrar may deregister an FSP. For example, if:
- it failed to file its annual confirmation
- where required to, it failed to join a dispute resolution scheme (DRS) within 10 working days of registering and/or being engaged by a financial advice provider
- its registration was accepted based on false or misleading information
- payments of fees are dishonoured, declined or reversed
- directed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) or the Financial Advisers Disciplinary Committee (FADC).
Refer to the legislation
We may send you a notice of intention to deregister
If we take action to deregister your FSP, we’ll notify you first by email and also send you a letter. This contains information about how to object and the final date for lodging an objection.
If the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) or the Financial Advisers Disciplinary Committee (FADC) directs us to deregister your FSP, deregistration is immediate and you cannot object to the deregistration.
How to object to deregistration
Before you can submit your objection, you must have:
- a RealMe® login
- an online services account with the FSPR
- authority to act for your FSP.
To submit your objection, follow these steps:
- Log in to your online services account.
- From the dashboard, use either the search options or the ‘FSP registrations’ tab to find and select the FSP.
- On the ‘View FSP details’ screen, choose the ‘Lodge an Objection’ button.
- Provide the reason for your objection
- If you have documents that support your reason for objecting, you can upload a copy.
- Read the declaration and confirm that you have done so.
- Click on ‘Submit’.
What happens next
We will review your objection and we’ll send you email confirmation that this review is underway.
After we've considered your objection, we’ll email you the outcome.
- If your objection is accepted subject to certain conditions, we’ll let you know what other steps you need to take. For example, you may need to update details on the register such as filing an annual confirmation or updating Dispute Resolution Scheme details.
- If your objection is accepted with no conditions, we’ll email you to confirm that and cancel the deregistration of your FSP.
- If we reject your objection, we’ll email you and explain our reasons for not accepting your objection. You also have the right to appeal the decision in the High Court (or the District Court if relevant). The FSP will be deregistered once the period for objections has passed.
Completing the deregistration
Once the period for objections has passed, if there are no active objections, we’ll deregister your FSP. We’ll send you an email confirming this, and we’ll also advise:
- the DRS you belong to, if applicable and
- any authorities you're licensed or certified by to provide financial services — that is, the FMA, the Reserve Bank or the Commerce Commission.
We must also give notice of all deregistrations to the general public. We do this by placing a notice of deregistration against your FSP on the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR). We’ll also publish a deregistration notice in the ‘News and notices’ section of our website.
Check our current noticesIn some cases you may be able to reregister, but you must do that within 60 calendar days of being deregistered.