ASIC

Australian forex broker, Pepperstone, received a warning from the Australian regulator, ASIC, regarding an advertisement to attract forex clients from Japan. The advertisement placed by Pepperstone is considered illegal because the AFS license from ASIC owned by the broker does not allow the withdrawal of clients from Japan.


Pepperstone has placed advertisements through its multi-lingual Japanese website so that the broker can also find some Japanese clients. The ASIC banning this gives Japanese traders at Pepperstone time to close their positions and withdraw funds by December 31st. And while waiting for closing, do not allow additional trading in the Pepperstone account.

Although it prohibits withdrawing clients from Japan, ASIC seems to have no plans to impose sanctions or fines on Pepperstone in this regard. On October 13, ASIC officially warned Pepperstone to exit the Japanese market immediately.

JFSA Reprimands ASIC?

As reviewed by Leaprate.com, Pepperstone agreed to stop its financial services in Japan. ASIC reasoned that Pepperstone did not have permission from JFSA (Japan's futures trading regulator) to attract clients from Japan. It has been known recently that JFSA is tightening forex trading regulations. There is speculation that JFSA has complained about this via ASIC.

Opting to comply with its regulators, Pepperstone also announced that it would no longer accept clients from Japan and had sent an email regarding this to clients who had already registered.

Pepperstone is not the only broker hampered by Japanese regulators. FXCM, a well-known US broker, should discontinue its CFD trading services to Japanese retail traders. Japan's trade regulation system is known to be quite exclusive, so only certain brokers can penetrate the Japanese forex market.