Plus500 has just released an announcement detailing its progress in unfreezing client accounts opened under its U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated entity. On the 18th of May, the company announced that a number of accounts were frozen due to lack of compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) ) requirements.
As revealed in today's statement, Plus500 has hired about 40 staff members in order to speed up the process of unlocking client accounts.
Plus500 details that between the 18th of May and 8th of June, about 23,000 customers logged into their trading accounts. The AML review documentation was submitted by 10,147 customers and 8,457 customer accounts have been reviewed and unlocked.
The FCA has asked the broker to update its compliance team with a compliance officer who is mandated to review the steps taken by Plus500UK in compliance with AML regulations.
The company warned that the full effects from the account freezing have yet to be felt, but outlined that 61 percent, or 5,205 had resumed trading. A total of 457 clients or about 5 percent have withdrawn their account balances.
Commenting in the announcement, the CEO of Plus500 Ltd, Gal Haber, said, "We have made progress in reapproving customer accounts during the last week and as a result expect a majority of clients who have completed the remedial AML procedures to be unfrozen within the previously expressed timeline. This will be followed by contacting inactive customers."
Plus500UK continues to work with compliance consultants on the agreement of the required procedures to enable the on-boarding of new clients. At the same time, the broker has been reaching out to inactive clients and asking for additional documentation in order to verify their accounts.
