Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Phillip Capital, a Chicago-based member of the Phillip Capital Group, said it ceases offering retail forex trading to its US customers, starting from June 1. The company stops trading for existing forex accounts and will not open any new forex accounts. The termination also affects the forex customers of Phillip Capital’s introducing brokers.
The decision comes in response to a notice of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from May 20, prohibiting any dually SEC-registered broker-dealers and CFTC-registered futures commission merchants from offering retail forex to its customers, effective July 31, 2016. The new ruling would affect mostly “smaller” forex brokers such as Phillip Capital, whereas the “big three” FXCM, Gain Capital and Oanda could continue to offer retail forex trading in the US.
“The SEC’s decision is a big disappointment for us, as we had recently begun the soft launch of our forex offering,” said Lynette Lim, Co-CEO & Director of Phillip Capital. “With the financial stability and resources of the PhillipCapital Group, we had all the criteria to be a strong player in the forex market, where there has only been a handful of incumbents in the last six years. We have spent almost two years integrating MT4, the most popular retail trading platform, to our back office system and as a result, customers were able to able to trade both forex and futures with one account,” Lim added.
In her words, the termination of the forex offering will not affect the other asset classes such as clearing futures, securities and equities and the company will continue its efforts on growing this business.
Phillip Capital, was established in 2010 as a clearing futures company. It is a member of the US Natural Futures Association (NFA) and has registration as a forex dealer, forex firm, swap firm and as a futures commission merchant.
The company is part of the PhillipCapital Group, which was set up as a stock broking firm in 1975 in Singapore. It offers a large suite of financial products and services, including fund management, managed accounts, unit trusts, insurance planning, regular savings, contracts for difference, exchange traded funds, investment research, equity financing, property; and broking in bonds, securities, futures, foreign exchange, precious metals and commodities. It has offices in 16 countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK, France, Turkey, Australia and USA.