Retail broker Vantage FX has ceased providing services to clients outside of Australia via its local subsidiary Vantage Global Prime.
The broker sent an email to clients on Monday saying that clients can close their positions and can sign up to the broker's Cayman Islands-regulated entity instead.
In that same email, the broker cited regulatory concerns when justifying its decision to cease providing services to clients outside of Australia.
"In light of recent regulatory announcements, Vantage Global Prime....will no longer be providing financial services to clients outside of Australia," the broker's email said.
Vantage FX is the second broker in under a week to announce that it would cease providing services to traders outside of Australia.
Last Thursday, IFGM announced that it would start refunding non-Australian clients and confirmed that it would no longer be providing services to clients outside of the country.
Cracking down on FX in the land down under
This decision followed on the heels of a rapid clamping down on the Retail Trading industry on the part of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC ).
Following the introduction of restrictive regulations in Europe, Australia, with a solid regulator, access to banking facilities and permissive regulations, was initially seen by many brokers as one of the last respectable jurisdictions from which they could operate with some flexibility.
But, after the parliament introduced product intervention measures in early April, ASIC immediately cracked down on brokers.
Along with demanding swathes of company data, the regulator also said that companies providing services to clients outside of Australia could be breaking the law.
That latter criticism appears to have been directed at brokers focused on the Chinese market.
As Finance Magnates reported last month, Chinese authorities told ASIC that no broker can legally operate in China and handed the regulator the names of Aussie firms that were trying to onboard clients from the world's second-largest economy.
