Admirals acquires CFDs broker license in South Africa, sets up shop in Cape Town
Admirals SA (PTY) Ltd, an operating subsidiary of Admirals, has received regulatory approval to offer CFDs trading to investors in South Africa.
The new entity will be headquartered in Cape Town. Acting as an execution dealer, Admirals SA (PTY) Ltd will provide both CFDs and stock trading, but it plans to launch additional products in the future under its this South-African license. However, the broker is not allowed to provide investment advice or recommendations regarding CFDs transactions.
Forex brokers in South Africa are overseen by the financial sector conduct authority, FSCA, which approves the platforms that can operate within the jurisdiction. The powerful watchdog handles the issuance of licenses and can sanction companies that violate guidelines of the nation’s dual regulation system.
South Africa enjoys a strong and well-organized financial market and therefore has become a popular destination for brokers looking to expand. It is one of the world’s top ten capital markets and boasts thousands of investors. The country itself is a diverse market that is largely devoid of the market saturation seen in other jurisdictions such as Europe.
The country’s resource-rich economy is heavily reliant on financial services and its appeal as a business hub only increases as there are almost no competing financial centers in the south part of the black continent.
The Estonian-based firm, which celebrated its 21st anniversary in March, described the milestone as a first stage with plans already in place to increase the scope of its activities in Africa over the coming year.
While it sees South Africa a fantastic opportunity to continue its geographic expansion, Admirals looks to see how the local market takes up the product offering and what unique selling points the company can provide.
“The addition of a South African license to our Group signifies the conclusion of one of the key milestones in our 10-year vision, which is to provide financial freedom to 10 million people by 2030. Admirals is becoming a global financial hub, which is not only providing smart financial solutions to its clients but is enabling access to the global financial markets everywhere and every time,” explained the CEO of the Admirals Group, Mr. Sergei Bogatenkov.
He added: “Today we are witnessing a rapidly evolving financial environment in Africa, which provides us significant means to expand our client base. We see this licence as a strong landmark, laying a promising ground for the success of our long-term strategy. We look forward to bringing the chance to our existing clients and new clients to enjoy our products such as CFDs and our extensive global Share Trading options through this new license.”
Admirals is licensed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The regulatory approvals allow the brokerage firm to offer a set of financial services and also approved to provide cross-border services across the EU / EEA under European passport rights. The company maintains its core offices are in Estonia, Jordan, Cyprus, Malaysia and UK.
