Aussie broker Pepperstone has issued a temporary suspension of its UK trading arm
Just a heads up for anyone with Pepperstone, trading in the UK. If you haven't already, you should be receiving an email or notice that they have temporarily suspended trading in the UK and advise clients with open positions to close them out by 17.00GMT 9th March 2017, or positions will be closed automatically.
There's no real reason given for the move save for;
"to ensure that we comply with all our regulatory obligations, we need to close-out all our open client positions until the transition has been completed."
Here's the full content of their email.
"Hi
This email is to let you know that we are temporarily suspending trading in the
UK. This trading suspension only affects your trading account and a small
number of UK clients registered under Pepperstone Limited, Pepperstone's FCA
regulated entity.
What does this mean for you?
We're busy preparing to ensure that our UK clients receive the
best trading conditions and premium execution along with the benefits of local
support.
In the meantime, to ensure that we comply with all our regulatory obligations, we
need to close-out all our open client positions until the transition has been
completed.
All positions must be closed out by 5pm
GMT on 9 March 2017, or they'll be closed out
automatically.
We'll notify you by email as soon as we're open for business again. In the
meantime, if you have further questions or concerns please don't hesitate to
contact our Support Team via: support@pepperstone.com
We thank you for your understanding and look forward to having you trade with
us again in future."
Without throwing speculation around, the message obviously points to a regulatory issue. They received their FCA license last September. I've had a quick look for any notices on the FCA website but can't find anything.
