Firm kept lending for 18 months after warning, charging up to 55.61%
A Christchurch lender that mainly served the city’s Filipino community has been fined $15,000 for lending without registration. The company kept issuing loans for 18 months after being told it needed to be registered, according to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
4J Enterprise Limited said it charged annual interest of 33%, but its own records showed some borrowers paid as much as 55.61%.
Warned, but kept lending
FMA executive director Louise Unger said the company had ignored a clear warning.
“Despite 4J being told in May 2024 that it couldn’t lend without being registered, or being certified by the Commerce Commission, which was the requirement at the time, it carried on for another 18 months,” Unger said in the FMA’s media release on the sentencing.
Over that period, the company wrote 46 new loans worth $81,110 to 27 borrowers. It collected about $65,000 in interest across 50 new and existing loans, before it stopped collecting interest in November 2025. The loans ranged from $500 to $15,000, with terms of six months to two years.
Registration rules protect borrowers
Unger said registration and certification exist so lenders meet minimum standards and can be held to account under New Zealand’s consumer credit laws.
“If you need a licence and registration, have them in place before you lend,” she said.
The company pleaded guilty in June 2026 to a representative charge of providing a financial service without being registered. Both company director Hope Suan and senior manager Juvy Suan pleaded guilty as parties to the offending.
In the Christchurch District Court, Judge Katie Elkin sentenced Hope Suan to 140 hours of community work and Juvy Suan to 150 hours, alongside the company’s fine.
The penalty was well short of the maximum. A company can be fined up to $300,000 for the offence, while individuals face up to 12 months in prison, a fine of up to $100,000, or both.
A new regulator for consumer credit
The Commerce Commission investigated 4J and laid the charges. The FMA took over the prosecution when responsibility for consumer credit moved to it on 1 July 2026.
The transfer of consumer credit regulation to the FMA brought home loans, personal lending, and the wider credit sector under a single conduct regulator for the first time. Mortgage advisers have an indirect regulatory relationship under the new regime.
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