Finance Magnates learned on Monday that two companies are applying for regulatory licensing in the US.
According to documents released by the National Futures Association (NFA), Brightwin Securities and Finance applied to become a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) last month.
The broker is also in the process of applying for NFA membership, Forex Firm status, and to become a registered Forex Dealer in the US.
Alongside Brightwin is a mysterious firm called Nanshan Jinchuang Co.
Based in Taiwan, the company applied to the NFA to become a registered Commodity Pool Operator and Commodity Trading Advisor in February of this year.
Last month, the firm appears to have withdrawn its application for pool operator status. But less than a week after it did that, the firm applied to become a Forex Firm, Forex Dealer and RFED.
It is unclear as to who operates Nanshan or what it’s main focus is. The company has an address listed on the NFA database, but this does not appear to match with a real life one.
A government database of all registered companies in Taiwan also only lists one firm with Nanshan in its name - Nanshan Group. Aside from its name being different to the NFA firm, it is also located in a separate city to the company listed on the US regulator’s database.
Nanshan Group is a Chinese company that made the bulk of its cash in producing metals. But it also owns a huge number of subsidiaries which are themselves engaged in a diverse array of business activities.
Thus, it seems plausible that one of these subsidiaries is the firm applying for licensing in the US. Finance Magnates attempted to reach both the NFA-listed company and the Nanshan Group for comment. At the time of publishing, neither company had responded.
Registered as a Kiwi, based in Singapore
Unlike its NFA co-applicant, Brightwin does have an address.
The retail broker is registered in New Zealand but its founders, Marcus Lau, and Jerome Fan, are based in Singapore.
Finance Magnates contacted Lau and Fan for comment on this story but, at the time of publication, no response was forthcoming.
It must be said that the broker’s site does not resemble one that belongs to a company hoping to enter the US market. With hefty capital requirements of $20 million, it is really only big market players that can afford to do business in America.
But, speaking to Finance Magnates last Friday, an NFA executive confirmed that the applications for both Brightwin and Nanshan were real and pending.
“There is no clear time-frame as to how long this will take,” the NFA executive, who works in the regulator’s Compliance team, said. “It depends on how prepared they are with documents and their ability to meet our standards.”
Aside from Nanshan and Brightwin, Trading.com Markets, a subsidiary of XM’s owner Trading Point, is also in the process of applying for US regulatory approval. The Cyprus-based broker has been going through the application process since January of this year.
