TeleTrade Group LLC, a Russian retail Forex broker, has recently announced the suspension of its operations in Russia.
This move is not surprising, as it comes merely a couple of days after the massive crackdown by the Bank of Russia on the regulated retail FX sector.
On December 27, the Russian central bank suspended licenses of five of the nine retail FX dealers operating within the country. The dealers on the list are Alpari, TeleTrade, TrustForex, InstaForex, and Forex Club.
In the official statement, TeleTrade said that it is no longer going to accept new customers and is closing all open positions and accounts of existing ones.
“In accordance with the requirements of the current legislation, Teletrade Group LLC is obliged to terminate professional activities in the securities market, with the exception of actions related to the termination of obligations to customers arising from professional activities in the securities market,” the statement noted. “In this regard, we have stopped opening new accounts and accepting funds, as well as executing orders for new deals in the market. We continue to accept instructions for closing open positions and withdrawing funds in the same order in accordance with current legislation.”
Sudden Crackdown
The sudden move by the central bank has shaken the Russian local FX market. Though it has absorbed many controversial decisions over several years, the recent move was unexpected as the bank granted a new operating license to Alfa Forex only a few days earlier.
Alpari, one of the firms in the central bank’s list, wasted no time to announce that it is preparing to appeal the decision of the Russian central bank.
Moreover, due to the ongoing holidays in the Russian calendar, the applications for fund withdrawal from TeleTrade will not be processed till January 9, 2019.
Teletrade was targeted by the Russian regulator in mid-2017 when it was ordered to shut down its teletrade.ru website.
