More news from the Australian Nanny State
Excerpts (I have put certain portions in bold type for emphasis)
- If there is was any doubt about ASIC’s motives behind the latest crackdown on the industry, this morning’s news about firms getting an urgent letter from the regulator dispelled any suspicions. Australian retail brokers were asked by the regulator to suspend on-boarding clients from overseas, where the firms are not regulated.
- While at first glance, the focus of the regulator’s message could be pointing at the EU, yesterday’s communique, which explicitly mentioned China is where we should be looking …
- As in the EU case from last year, the most detrimental result is for end-clients which are still looking to trade with high leverage. Those will now look once again to brokers located offshore, in remote jurisdictions that provide questionable protection.
- While Australian brokers have remained mostly outside of this industry trend, the times are changing fast. Companies which don’t have offshore subsidiaries will start looking to open new ones to be able to mitigate the impact of the new restrictions which the ASIC demands.
Edit
Here is another article, on the same topic, from earlier in the day —