The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) received 2,701 enquiries and 839 complaints in the year to June according its latest Investigations and Enforcement Report.
The enquiries related mainly to the Financial Markets Conduct Act and the way the FMA engages with the market in relation to the Act, and to issues around the Anti-Money Laundering Regime.
Most of the complaints related to alleged scams, including those through foreign exchange trading platforms, people or entities providing financial services without registration or authorisation, and matters involving custody of client funds.
One the enforcement side, the FMA's enforcement team undertook 76 inquiries and investigations and was engaged in 29 litigation cases.
These covered a wide range of matters and many were related to: offer disclosures and illegal offers; insider trading and market manipulation; finance company investigations, both civil and criminal; financial reporting by public issuers and contributory mortgage brokers, and financial crime, which included Companies Act and Crimes Act offences.
The FMA said it had a greater number of cases before the courts than in the previous year,which was largely the result of the completion of three large finance company investigations (OPI Finance, Viaduct Capital, and Mutual Finance) which resulted in the initiation of criminal proceedings.
Of the 76 inquiries and investigations undertaken during the year, 46 were closed during the same period.
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