FXOpen, a fairly large Forex broker, was recently granted an ASIC license and officially launched its service in Australia.
Australia, as we covered in our news extensively, has become to the Asia-Pacific region what Cyprus is to Europe - a convenient gateway for most forex brokers. Lately we've seen Saxo Bank, Ava FX and Admiral Markets, to name a few, acquire an Australian license.
Australian regulator is considered one of the strictest but also one of the more welcoming ones meaning that unlike NFA they actually welcome financial businesses as long as they comply with their standards. Lately however with the influx of forex brokers ASIC is monitoring this market more closely and is introducing new rules to make sure client funds are safe.
FXOpen has certainly come a long way since having its license revoked by Mauritius FSC (some tie this with the subsequent launch of GBOT) and being sued by CFTC for accepting American clients. FXOpen lately settled with the CFTC and now it finally gets its first major regulatory license (at least one more is in works) which should help it position itself much better in the market where regulatory stamp of approval (even though it doesn't always help) is one of the most important factors for clients to consider.
