Foreign exchange (Forex) is the largest and most liquid market in the world. With a daily trading volume of over $7 trillion, according to the latest survey by BIS, it attracts millions of traders globally, from central banks to individuals. Its massive size, global reach and speculative nature make it susceptible to high risks and fraud. This is where regulation comes in.
The need for regulation
The need for regulation can’t be emphasised enough. Primarily, regulation aims at creating a secure and transparent environment for traders and investors through a comprehensive set of rules which financial firms must comply with. Here are a few aspects where regulation helps:
● Investor protection. By setting standards for best practice, regulation protects investors against scams and other fraudulent activities, such as misleading advertising and others.
Regulated Forex brokers such as AAAFx do their utmost to ensure their clients’ financial security by applying strict data security protocols such as GDPR and keeping client funds safe in segregated accounts, separated from the company’s funds.
● Ensuring transparency. Regulated brokers and other financial institutions are required to maintain transparency in all aspects of their activity. This includes a clear disclosure of pricing, leverage, commissions and fees, as well as the risks associated with Forex trading. AAAFx is no exception to this rule. Regulated by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) for providing online trading services to EU clients and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for providing its services globally, the broker displays all the relevant risk warnings, leverage and commissions on its website. AAAFx also takes pride in maintaining a “no hidden fees” policy, which continues to attract a lot of traders.
● Maintaining market integrity. Forex regulation helps market manipulation and unethical practices, false advertising and misleading communication. This contributes to preserving the Forex market’s integrity. In this regard, AAAFx ticks all boxes, projecting itself as a compliant financial service provider, adhering to the norms of fiduciary compliance.
● Promoting financial stability. By overseeing the activity of Forex brokers, regulators enforce rules that help ensure and maintain stability and uniformity across the global financial ecosystem. This uniformity across jurisdictions helps platform operators like AAAFx to smoothly penetrate other markets by obtaining approval from multiple regulatory bodies around the world.
As an industry veteran, AAAFx also holds multiple registrations and regulations with prominent financial authorities globally, including the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa. This allows it to provide its services ethically and transparently to traders in these regions, thus expanding its outreach beyond the borders of Europe.
From a retail perspective, AAAFx’s global expansion offers traders across borders the unique opportunity to explore its financial services and gain exposure to multiple asset classes and markets.
“We are proud to hold licenses and registrations with multiple regulators in Europe and worldwide. This strengthens our position as a Forex and CFD market leader, enabling us to promote our services ethically and transparently in these markets”, said Somesh Kapuria, Head of Growth.
The crucial role of regulators
Regulators play a pivotal role in assuring the optimal operation of the financial ecosystem by overseeing the activity of each of its active players. Some of their responsibilities include:
● Licensing and supervision. Regulatory bodies issue licenses to Forex brokers and other financial institutions and constantly monitor their activity to ensure their full compliance with the norms of transparency and best practices.
● Standardisation. EU regulators issue standards and directives that investment service providers must follow. These can include capital requirements, negative balance protection, investor fund protection and others.
In line with its HCMC requirements, AAAFx provides negative balance protection to its EU clients as well as insurance up to €30,000, under its Greek Guarantee Fund participation. This secures client funds should the company become insolvent.
● Market surveillance. In addition to the above, regulators monitor the activity of every market participant to ensure compliance and detect any violations of the preset rules, market manipulation and insider trading.
● Consumer education. AAAFx offers a range of resources and trading tools such as calculators and an economic calendar, enabling traders to stay on the pulse of the financial markets. Novice traders can also explore the demo account option and test-drive the platform before investing.
● Fraud deterrence. The role of any supervisory institution is to deter any fraudulent undertakings by enforcing strict rules.
For many brokers, regulations pose numerous challenges in terms of how they market their products. Yet for others, challenges are opportunities in disguise. This is the case of AAAFx, a broker with over a decade of experience in the financial industry that complies with regulatory requirements.
Rising above the regulatory challenges
Driven by a profound customer-centric approach to trading, AAAFx places great emphasis on cost-effective trading. Its competitive spreads, low commissions and diverse ECN account offering earned it a top place among industry players.
The comprehensive array of trading tools and flexible infrastructure comprising MT4 and MT5 platforms make AAAFx an excellent choice for both advanced and novice traders. The broker also provides direct connectivity to ZuluTrade’s social trading environment, enabling traders to explore trading however it suits them.
Offering exposure to 70+ Forex pairs and CFDs on widely traded stocks, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies, AAAFx continues to turn traders’ heads. The broker surpassed the 1 million mark in website traffic.
With a diverse offering and excellent support, AAAFx has demonstrated time and again that regulatory challenges cannot prevent its global expansion. This year, AAAFx won several awards, including ”Best CFD Broker - MEA”, “best CFD Broker - APAC”, and “Broker of the Year”.
Trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Before deciding to trade CFDs, you should carefully consider your trading objectives, level of experience and risk appetite. It is possible for you to sustain losses that exceed your invested capital, and therefore you should not deposit money that you cannot afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks and take appropriate care to manage them.
