I found this on Forex Peace Army posted on January 22, 2021.
Due to new regulations being introduced by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Blueberry Markets Group will soon cease providing services to clients who are located outside of Australia. To ensure the continuation of your trading experience with us we have arranged for Eightcap Global Ltd to provide services to clients located outside of Australia, such as yourself. Blueberry Markets Group is a registered domain of Eightcap Global Ltd.
I messaged Blueberry Markets a few minutes ago to ask them if they still accept foreign traders and they said they, yes. However, all foreign traders will now be registered in Vanuatu under the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission(VFSC) and all Australian traders will still be registered under the ASIC.
This could have a serious impact on the customer service of foreign traders using Australian Forex Brokers.
Hi @cebudude, @garfield01, Australia is following suit in a move that is likely to have a significant impact on the second largest CFD market in the world after the UK, meaning that now, all CFD providers, given that Australia and the United Kingdom are the main target markets, may well have to reconsider their product range.
As far as this new legislation is concerned, ASIC has made a product intervention order imposing conditions on the issue and distribution of CFDs to retail clients.
ASICâs order strengthens consumer protections by reducing CFD leverage available to retail clients and by targeting CFD product features and sales practices that amplify retail clientsâ CFD losses. It also brings Australian practice into line with protections in force in comparable markets elsewhere.
From 29 March 2021, ASICâs product intervention order will:
restrict CFD leverage offered to retail clients to a maximum ratio of:
30:1 for CFDs referencing an exchange rate for a major currency pair
20:1 for CFDs referencing an exchange rate for a minor currency pair, gold or a major stock market index
10:1 for CFDs referencing a commodity (other than gold) or a minor stock market index
2:1 for CFDs referencing crypto-assets
5:1 for CFDs referencing shares or other assets
standardise CFD issuersâ margin close-out arrangements that act as a circuit breaker to close-out one or more a retail clientâs CFD positions before all or most of the clientâs investment is lost
protect against negative account balances by limiting a retail clientâs CFD losses to the funds in their CFD trading account, and
prohibit giving or offering certain inducements to retail clients (for example, offering trading credits and rebates or âfreeâ gifts like iPads).
These new regulations being applied to Australian Traders at the end of March will cause a percentage of traders to look OS for Brokers that can continue with higher leverage accounts (ie: 1:400, 1:500 etc).
Unfortunately this means that Foreign and highly leveraged Australian traders will have to operate in low or even worse nil regulation environments such as Vanuatu, the Seychelles, Marshall or Cayman Islands.
As has been displayed with the GameStop share saga in the US⌠The fiscal elite donât like losing money, and so retail leverage has been reduced for our own good, effectively stopping âJohnny come latelyâ with a $200 CFD Account and some trading smarts, making off with easy profits from an inefficient market.
This is correct. They will also possibly offer 1:500 leverage to Australian traders as well, as long as the accounts are offshore and regulated under the VFSC.