IG Group’s (IG) efforts at opening a US subsidiary took a major step forward this Tuesday after the firm received regulatory approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) - a self-regulatory organization that governs the American derivatives market.
Tuesday’s release from the NFA indicates that IG has received all of the regulatory approvals that it applied for in October of last year. For you poor plebs that can’t remember what exactly the broker wanted to get the regulator’s green light for, the list is as follows:
IG has made intermittent announcements regarding its US office over the past 12 months. In the retail broker’s annual report, which was released in July, it estimated that its US office would open in the middle of its 2019 fiscal year. As the firm’s fiscal year starts in June, that means its US office could open in the next couple of months.
IG in the Windy City
The NFA’s release also confirms what IG had previously announced - that its US office will be located in Chicago. According to the statement released by the regulator, the retail broker’s office will be located on W Jackson Boulevard in the heart of the Windy City’s financial district.
In terms of people, IG doesn’t appear to need to do much work in its human resources division. As reported by Finance Magnates back in July, the firm has already made all of the hires that it needs to for its US operations.
At a senior management level, the IG’s US CEO will be Rupert Osborne - formerly the broker’s Deputy Head of FX and Futures. Ron Wetzel, who was Chief Financial Officer at OptionsXpress, has taken up the same position with IG’s US division. Finally, ex-NFA Compliance Manager Karen Degroot has been brought in as the company’s Chief Compliance Officer.
