ThinkMarkets – South Africa’s new regulated broker

South Africa is getting in the center of attention lately for various reasons including the economic and political events, developing industry of Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies and emerging Forex industry. More and more brokers are moving to South Africa to adopt the new market and possibly expand in the other African countries in the future. Now the UK online brokerage – ThinkMarkets received a trading license from the Financial Services Conduct  Authority (FSCA) of South Africa.

ThinkMarkets, a brokerage firm that was established in 2010 currently has its headquarters in Australia and provides electronic financial trading services to the UK and Europe.  With the newly received authorization, the broker will also offer services to the South African traders.  Now as ThinkMarkets has received the trading license, the broker is planning to set an office in Johannesburg and provide a wide range of investment products. As the broker announced, it will offer Rand based currency pairs such as USD: ZAR, GBP: ZAR and EUR: ZAR alongside some major currency pairs. The broker also offers CFD trading to its customers, one can trade CFDs on commodities, stock indices, and single stock CFDs. According to the broker, traders will also have access to equity derivatives that are traded by investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Co-founder and managing director of ThinkMarkets, Faizan Anees made a comment about receiving the license stating that the newly approved license is a testament to the commitment of the brokerage to offer CFDs and Forex trading with the confidence of regulated and safe trading environment. ThinkMarkets online platform will be available for SA residents from the beginning of the next month.

South Africa in the center of attention

ThinkMarkets is not the only brokerage, or the first one, who decided to expand its business in South Africa. Some of the largest brokerages have already expanded their footprints there and are already providing their service to SA residents. Many of the international brokers in South Africa are now in the process of obtaining the license from the  FSCA.

According to Faizan Anees, in the last two years, the brokerage has shifted its focus from well-developed Forex markets to the emerging markets. As Anees states the reason behind is the changes in the behavior of investors and in the use of technologies.  He also added, that South Africa has the most significant number of smartphone users in Africa and the brokerage itself is one of the fastest growing brokers on mobile. According to Anees, the ThinkMarkets is planning to be a leading participant of the ever-increasing financial service sector in South Africa.

However, The main reason South Africa is getting into the center of attention for so many international brokers now – is the ESMA regulations in Europe.  After banning the binary options trading, ESMA has extended restrictions several times and set the low leverage cap for trading instruments. Thus, Europe is no longer a lucrative market for Forex brokers. Meanwhile, South Africa has made some of the economic and fiscal reforms that help to create a great economic landscape and environment for both – brokers and traders as well. It makes South Africa one of the best destinations for international brokers to expand their business.