Generally to buy and sell shares that are traded on NZX you will need to have an account with a broker, nominate a bank account and authorise the broker to make automatic withdrawals to settle purchases. Your broker will automatically deposit the net proceeds of sales of shares.

You will need to make an initial deposit to a new bank account as cleared funds are a pre-requisite to trading. Once you know the bank account number, deposits can generally be made by cheque, electronic funds transfer, telegraphic transfer or BPAY.

If you buy online you will need your client number and when you sell you will need the Common Shareholder Number (CSN) and a Faster Identification Number (FIN). A CSN is a single shareholder number that is common to New Zealand share registries for all company listed securities and can be found in the right hand corner of your Securities Transaction Statement. A FIN is like a PIN and is automatically allocated by the share registry for security purposes when you first buy shares. Commit your FIN to memory or keep it safe.

Bank account details can be viewed online, so you always know your daily balance and have a record of your transactions. As a rule you may have dividends paid into the account and also make regular payments into the account if you wish.

Funds held in these accounts generally attract a competitive cash management interest rate.