The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand has revoked the crowdfunding service license of Equitise Pty Ltd. The revocation took effect on April 3, 2024.

The Financial Markets Authority found:

• Equitise has seriously breached certain obligations of licensed market service providers.
• There have been significant changes related to the Equitise license.
• Equitise no longer meets certain statutory requirements, including the ability to effectively conduct its crowdfunding services, and there is no reason to believe Equitise may not violate its licensed person obligations.

The matters relied upon by the FMA include Equitise's failure to provide its financial reports and agreed-upon procedures reports, as well as the company's deregistration by the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR). The company has a history of non-compliance with various laws and other obligations.

Equitise failed to submit its audited financial statements for 2023 by October 30, 2023. The company also did not provide copies of its 2023 annual agreed-upon procedures report and other information to the FMA. These financial statements, reports, and required information remain outstanding.

In August of last year, Equitise had its registration revoked by the FSPR for failure to submit its annual confirmation statement within the prescribed timeframe. Despite the deregistration, Equitise continued to provide crowdfunding services, facilitating two offers. However, following the deregistration, Equitise could no longer legally provide crowdfunding services. Equitise's registration was still revoked by the FSPR.

Given these reasons and Equitise's history of repeated compliance failures, the FMA has determined that revoking Equitise's license is an appropriate, fair, and proportionate action.