IC Markets to Cease Non-Aussie Business

Finance Magnates learned on Friday that IC Markets' Australian subsidiary would stop providing services to clients outside of Australia at the end of June.

In an email sent to clients, the retail broker said that regulatory developments meant that it would not be able to guarantee that it could provide its services to traders that aren't based in Australia.

IC Markets is the third broker, regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC ASIC The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the Read this Term), that Finance Magnates has found will be ceasing providing services to non-Australian clients.

Last month Vantage FX and IFGM both sent messages to clients telling them that they would soon be closing or migrating their accounts.

Heading to Seychelles

IC Markets will be doing the latter with its clients.

In the email it sent to clients warning them about the upcoming changes, the broker said that it would automatically migrate non-Australian clients to True ECN Trading Ltd - the business name of IC Markets (SC).

As the name suggests, IC Markets (SC) is a subsidiary of the broker which is based in Seychelles.

Regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles, the broker can provide the same high Leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term available to clients via its Australian entity.

"To make the transition [to IC Markets (SC)] smoother we have automated the migration process, it is completely seamless and will not affect your account balance, existing orders, open positions, trading history and client area login," wrote the broker in its email to clients. "Post-migration you will be able to continue trading as usual."

ASIC has been putting pressure on retail trading firms to stop doing business outside of Australia over the past couple of months. The regulator appears to be particularly concerned about brokers trying to access the Chinese market.

In April, the Australian parliament also handed ASIC product intervention powers that may mean we will soon be seeing leverage caps and marketing restrictions akin to those that now exist in Europe.