A man facing criminal insider trading allegations over the sale of shares in the NZX and ASX-listed company Pushpay is fighting to prevent his identity from being published until the start of a trial.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) launched its legal action, alleging improper trading in 2018, against two people in February.

Alongside the criminal proceedings, the FMA also instigated High Court civil proceedings against the man and another person. The second person also has interim name suppression.

The man earlier pleaded not guilty and elected a jury trial to a criminal charge under the Financial Markets Conduct Act. They were also remanded on bail and granted interim name suppression by the Auckland District Court.

After the case was elevated to the High Court, the man's lawyer, John Dixon KC, sought continued suppression of his client's name in the news media until the start of a jury trial in July next year.

On behalf of the financial markets watchdog, Auckland's Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey opposed a non-publication order, as did barrister Robert Stewart, who is acting counsel for a group of media organisations, including the Herald's publisher NZME.

Two connected parties have also sought a court-ordered non-publication order.

The evidence and arguments heard during today's hearing, however, were suppressed by Justice Gerard van Bohemen, who also reserved his decision.

Pushpay Holdings Limited, a donor management system for churches and charities operating in the US, announced co-founder and director Eliot Crowther had resigned and sold down his shareholding in the firm for about $100 million in June 2018.

The FMA alleges one of the criminally accused "used this material inside information to advise or encourage another person to trade in the lead-up to the market announcement", and the other person was involved in the conduct.

Crowther's trading was legitimate and he is not a party to the legal proceedings, the FMA said.

The matter was referred to the FMA by NZX Regulation, the frontline regulator of the New Zealand stock market now called NZ RegCo, in July 2018.

The FMA has previously said Pushpay, which has targeted US churches with technology that makes it easier for congregations to make donations, has co-operated and has not been the subject of its investigation. The company is also not a party to any legal proceedings.

In an announcement to the NZX after the FMA's action in February, Pushpay's chairman Graham Shaw said the company supports the regulator's commitment to the integrity of the capital markets in New Zealand.

"We take seriously our responsibilities as a listed company, and our values, ethics and integrity as a company are at the heart of our business practices," he said.

Pushpay's chief executive officer Molly Matthews also said at the time Pushpay has in place robust policies, procedures and training in relation to trading the company's shares.

The company has offices in Auckland, Seattle and Colorado Springs.

Insider trading cases in New Zealand are rare. The Pushpay case is the largest in New Zealand history by the value of shares traded.

In 2018, the first insider trading trial in the country's legal history ended with Hamish Sansom, a former executive of transport and technology company Eroad, being found not guilty. His acquittal came at a retrial after the first trial ended in a hung jury.

The FMA's case against Sansom came after he sold 15,000 Eroad shares for about $50,000 just days before its stock price plummeted and two days after he received texts from the company's former insights and analytics manager Jeffrey Peter Honey.

Honey, who was hired at Eroad by Sansom after the pair grew friendly while working at Vodafone, pleaded guilty and was convicted. He was sentenced to six months' home detention for his part in the scandal in 2017.

The Financial Markets Conduct Act prohibits people who hold material information about an issuer not generally available to the market from trading with that information, disclosing it in certain circumstances, and advising or encouraging other individuals to trade the issuer's shares.

Criminal insider trading can be punishable in New Zealand with a prison term of up to five years, a maximum fine of $500,000, or both for individuals. Civil proceedings can include a pecuniary penalty not exceeding the greatest of the consideration for the relevant transaction, three times the amount of the gain made or the loss avoided, and $1m in the case of an individual or $5m in any other case.