I signed up to Halifax.com.au but never gave them any funds.
I checked all my correspondence with them and it was clearly CFD's they were offering

However it would appear to me that they should have held the money in trust according to this from the FMA web site https://www.fma.govt.nz/compliance/r...tives-issuers/

Licensed derivatives issuers are required to comply with the requirements contained in the FMC Regs for the handling of derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property. These include:

  • Holding derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property on trust for the investor (or ensuring that derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property is held on trust for the investor).
  • Ensuring that derivatives investor money is paid promptly into a specified bank to a trust account and held separate from money held by or for the derivatives issuer or offeror on its own account.
  • Daily reconciliations of derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property either by an equity-based reconciliation in accordance with regulation 244A of the FMC Regs or a cash-based reconciliation in accordance with regulation 244B of the FMC Regs (an equity-based reconciliation must be carried out if the derivatives issuer carries out authorised hedging activities).
  • Derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property must not be used to satisfy any liability of a derivatives issuer.
  • Keeping and maintaining up-to-date records of derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property held for each investor.
  • Obtaining an assurance report, within 4 months after the issuer’s balance date, that states whether, in the auditor’s opinion, the derivatives issuer’s processes, procedures, and controls relating to derivatives investor money and derivatives investor property were suitably designed and operated effectively during the accounting period (see the Supervision by us section for information about additional assurance reporting obligations).