Terms & Conditions

eccuity Invest New Zealand Limited Terms and Conditions

Effective Date: 31 January 2024

eccuity Invest Background

eccuity Invest New Zealand Limited is part of the Maddition Group which is a wealth management technology business] that powers wealth building platforms like eccuity Invest and eccuity.

eccuity Invest partners with global companies to give you access to investment products. We do not create, issue or own these products. It's important for you to carefully review the terms of each product to determine if it suits your needs and understand the associated risks, seeking professional financial advice before deciding to invest.

Warning

The eccuity Invest Service or associated products and businesses do not give financial advice.

All information contained in eccuity Invest Service is factual information only and has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should not rely on any information contained in eccuity Invest Service and before making any investment decision you should consider whether it is appropriate for your situation and seek appropriate financial, taxation and legal advice. We do not provide any opinion or recommendation as to what you should invest in or what investments you should dispose of. It's up to you to make decisions about which products to invest in, taking appropriate advice prior to actioning any investment decision . When you invest real money, there is a real risk that you may lose some or all of your investment. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions and any losses you experience as a result.

Account Creation

To create an account, you must be:

1. At least 18 years of age;
2. A physical and tax resident of New Zealand;
3. Possess the legal right and ability to enter into a legally binding agreement with us; and
4. Agree and warrant to use the eccuity Invest Service in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

We retain the right to cancel your account for any reason, or refuse your account activation request at any time. We do not need to provide you with notice or provide any reason.

Additionally you must:

1. Sign up for eccuity.com;
2. Complete the eccuity Invest onboarding application;
3. Provide complete and accurate information that we and our partners need during the sign-up process;
4. Upload necessary documents that we and our partners need to verify your identity as required by law;
5. eccuity Invest will use electronic identity verification services to confirm your identity and perform customer due diligence checks, including checking for politically exposed persons;
6. By applying for eccuity Invest, you give your consent for the company to verify your identity and conduct checks using these electronic services; 
7. Review in their entirety the Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC Agreements. Refer to plain English explanations for these agreements here.
8. By completing the eccuity Invest onboarding application, you are also signing into and accepting all the terms and conditions in the Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC agreements, you agree that we and our partners can communicate with you electronically about all matters.

It is essential for us to have your updated information at all times. Please review your account details regularly and inform us promptly of any changes. We will provide you with a secure login to access your eccuity Invest Account via the eccuity Platform. It is your responsibility to keep your account secure at all times by choosing a strong password and updating it as needed, ensuring that nobody else has access to your account. If we receive an order from your account, we will assume it is from you and proceed accordingly.

Please note that we are not liable for any unauthorised use of your eccuity Invest Account or any financial losses resulting from such unauthorised use. Please take necessary precautions to prevent unauthorised access and protect your account. If there is suspicion or a report of unauthorised use of your eccuity Invest Account, we have the right to suspend access to it. Additionally, we may suspend access at our complete discretion, without notice, if we believe the account's security is compromised, if it is being used for illegal purposes, or if required by law or regulatory authorities.

Whenever possible, we will inform you in advance if we are going to suspend your eccuity Invest Account and provide reasons for the suspension. However, in some cases, we may be required to act swiftly to ensure the account's security or may be prohibited by law or regulatory restrictions from notifying you . Please note that while your account is suspended, we are not responsible for any financial losses or missed opportunities you may experience. 

You need to report any unauthorised use of your eccuity Invest Account to us immediately, by emailing us at admin@eccuity.com

We have made all reasonable efforts to secure the information you provide to us, but you understand and accept that you use eccuity Invest and provide information at your own risk. We are not responsible for any misuse of your information that may occur due to a breach of our security measures.

eccuity Invest Terms

When you open an account with eccuity Invest, which includes an individual brokerage account with Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC (Alpaca), we refer to it as your "eccuity Invest Account''. It's important for you to read and understand all eccuity Invest Account terms and agree to follow them throughout your lifecycle with eccuity Invest. We have the right to modify these terms at any time. We will notify you by email four weeks prior if the changes materially impact the meaning or effect of these terms. However, minor changes that are inconsequential may be made without prior notification. 

If you disagree with any changes to the terms, you have the option to cancel your eccuity Invest Account before the new terms come into effect within 4 weeks of the receipt of the notification by you. By continuing to use eccuity Invest after the changes, we will consider you to have accepted the new terms.

Your eccuity Invest Account 

We properly account for your funds in your eccuity Invest Account and display the value of your funds and investments held with eccuity Invest. It's also where you place orders for your trading account. When you deposit money into your eccuity Invest Account, it is received in Kiwi Bank, a New Zealand bank account in trust with eccuity Invest NZ Limited and we then take the appropriate actions to transfer the funds to Alpaca Securities. By signing up to the eccuity Invest Service you give us the authority to use Wise Payments Limited to get the funds to your broker account as soon as possible. Funds will appear in your account generally within three (3) business days, however we use our best endeavours to get the funds available in your account within one (1) day. We will aim to get the best rate possible for foreign exchange and all fees charged will be clearly communicated via email confirmation upon the funds becoming available.

Funding an Account

 Before you can provide an Instruction to buy securities, you must fund your account. 

We may offer different payment methods and speeds for you to deposit funds to your account and transfer funds between New Zealand and United States of America currencies. eccuity Invest is not liable for any losses arising from funding delays or errors, including transfers between New Zealand and United States of America currencies. We may charge you a fee for certain payment methods or speeds. We reserve the right to change the type of payment methods and speeds, and fees associated with them, at our sole discretion without notice.

You agree that funds deposited via any funding method may not be available for withdrawal until the funds have cleared at eccuity Invest, which generally takes up to seven (7) business days. After this time, if the funds have cleared they may be withdrawn by you.

You authorise eccuity Invest, and any Service Provider, if required, to facilitate the transfer of funds deposited into your account (which are not the result of a withdrawal from the United States of America) to the United States of America client account of eccuity Invest’s broker-dealer (Alpaca Securities, LLC or ‘Alpaca’) (the ‘Alpaca Account’).

When you initiate a foreign exchange transfer on eccuity Invest, you authorise eccuity Invest to book a deal with Foreign Exchange Partners, such as Wise Payments Limited to convert your funds into United States of America dollars. The applicable exchange rate will be the rate at the time the funds are received (rather than when they are sent by you). We will provide an estimated exchange rate at the time you initiate the transfer, however if you do not select an instant payment method (for example a bank transfer), the actual exchange rate applied at the time that the funds are received may vary from the estimate provided. 

Funds transferred will be sent to one of our foreign exchange partners, and then remitted to your United States of America client account in United States of America dollars. eccuity Invest has contracted with its foreign exchange partners directly and you are not entering into a contractual relationship with that foreign exchange partner.

You will be notified once the funds have cleared in the Alpaca Account and are available to invest through eccuity Invest.

You confirm that the intention of using these funds is not for any improper or illegal activity.

If you fund your eccuity Invest Account directly (not explicitly within the eccuity Invest Service, but through your own channel) you acknowledge that eccuity Invest is not responsible or liable for any loss. eccuity Invest does not support third party deposits. You acknowledge that third party deposits may be rejected and sent back to source and eccuity Invest may take any other action in respect of your account, including suspension and/or charging a fee.

You must not fund your eccuity Invest Account from an international source.

eccuity Invest is responsible for maintaining accurate records of your money and ensuring the correct amount is transferred to your Alpaca Account. However, eccuity Invest is not liable for any losses resulting from fluctuations in the exchange rate or delays caused by eccuity Invest or the banks it works with.

If you have any concerns or disagree with the investment records and eccuity Invest Account statement, you must notify us promptly.

It is important that when transfering funds you provide your unique reference code with the transfer. In the case we are unable to match the unique reference code supplied, we will return the money to its original bank account, and notify you accordingly via email. 

If you or we decide to close your eccuity Invest Account, you give us authority to ensure that any investments held through eccuity Invest are sold and the resulting funds, less any applicable fees, are returned to your bank account. The sale of your investments would be completed in X days, however, this may change depending on circumstances. If circumstances change, we will notify you accordingly. 

Your investments are held by Alpaca as custodian or its sub-custodian, on your behalf and not directly by eccuity Invest. Refer to the information below regarding our business partners.

eccuity Invest Availability

Our eccuity Invest Services will be fully available between 08h00 to 18h00 New Zealand Time Monday to Friday and our team will be available during these core business hours to address any service failures 

While we endeavour to ensure our services are available, we can not guarantee this due to defects or reasons beyond our control. As such we are not liable if eccuity Invest is not available for any reasons beyond the core business hours.

Fees 

While we don’t charge any fees to open a eccuity Invest Account, there are fees for using any of the products and services on the eccuity Invest Platform. Our current fee schedule is here:

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Go to pricing

How we Make Money

1. Stock and ETF Trade Fees - 0.4% maximum with fees as low as 0.2% of order value
2. Interest on Cash Balances - A 50/50 revenue share with Alpaca of all cash held in $USD
3. Payment for Order Flow - A 50/50 revenue share with Alpaca
4. Spread on Crypto Transactions 0.75% - a 50/50 revenue share with Alpaca
5. Foreign Exchange for $NZD Deposits and Withdrawals - 1% - a 50/50 revenue share with Wise Payments Limited
6. Subscription offering for eccuity Private which enables users access cheaper transactions and other premium services and features

Complaints

If you have a complaint, please read our complaints handling process here.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the option to escalate it to our external dispute resolution scheme free of charge:

Financial Dispute Resolution Services (FDRS)

 Level 4, 142 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

www.fdrs.org.nz | 0508 337 337 | enquiries@fdrs.org.nz

 Our Privacy Obligation 

In order to effectively deliver eccuity Invest products and services, we and our partners need to collect personal details from you. Failure on your part to provide this requisite data will lead to you unable to use our products and services. We treat this information with utmost respect as detailed in our eccuity Invest Privacy Policy in alignment with New Zealand Privacy Law. 

Additionally some of the information we request is for Alpaca.

It's important to note that Alpaca is not governed by New Zealand law and will not be obligated to protect your information in a manner that provides equivalent safeguards as required by New Zealand privacy laws.

Alpaca handles and safeguards your information according to their Privacy Policy, which you must read and understand. You agree for us to share your information with Alpaca as a result of using eccuity Invest.

eccuity Invest Partners With

Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC (Alpaca)

Alpaca is a United States of America broker-dealer that provides brokerage services on eccuity Invest and holds investments on your behalf, either directly as custodian or through a sub-custodian.

With your eccuity Invest Account, you can purchase shares in companies and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrencies using Alpaca’s brokerage service. You have the flexibility to invest any dollar amount, even if it's a fraction of a share.

Alpaca currently offers access to shares from over 4,700 well-known companies and more than 1,200 ETFs.

When you sign up for the United States of America share market product, you agree to Alpaca’s Account Application and Customer Agreement and Alpaca Crypto Agreement. It is important to thoroughly read, understand and take advice on these Agreements as they outline the responsibilities and limitations of both Alpaca and yourself when trading through eccuity Invest. 

Please note at all times that eccuity Invest does not offer financial advice, and the information on this website should not be considered as a recommendation or opinion to invest or divest in any specific product or company. All investments come with risks, and there is always a possibility of losing money (in all or part) including the initial investment. It is advisable to consult a licensed financial, legal and tax adviser for professional advice before making any decisions to open a eccuity Invest account and to invest.

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