The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko - has issued an infringement notice to equity crowdfunding service provider Equitise Pty Ltd for failing to file financial statements by their due date.
Equitise has been licensed by the FMA as an equity crowdfunding service provider since 22 December 2014.
As a licensed equity crowdfunding service provider, Equitise was required to file audited financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2020 by 30 October 2020. At the date of publication of this media release, the company has yet to file its financial statements.
Equitise has paid a $7,500 infringement fee for the offence.
The purpose of financial statements is to provide investors and other stakeholders with useful information for decision-making purposes. For licensed crowdfunding service providers, this includes information about how the entity is performing under the licence.
It is important that reliable and supportable financial statements are made available to the public in a timely manner. For many reporting entities, financial statements are the only source of financial information available to investors and other stakeholders.
Financial statements filing review
The FMA recently published a report regarding the regulator's monitoring of financial reporting filing obligations. In 2020, the FMA issued an exemption that allowed Financial Markets Conduct Act reporting entities an additional two months to file financial statements.
The FMA has a broad range of regulatory tools (both formal statutory and informal non-statutory tools) for considering the appropriate regulatory response in relation to a filing breach.
