Hello , I have this doubt , they look very similar , founded in the same year and both from Australia , is ICMarkets and Pepperstone the same company ???
No, they aren’t. They are two different companies. I visited them both few times. Their offices are different. Staffs are different.
Pepperstone’s staff told me joke during my visit when ICMarkets’s staff responded me very formal. 
The point is they are different person, different company. But both of them great broker. Top notch !!! I love them both, undoubtedly.
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Thanks, I’m using ICMarkets Global, I’m looking to diversity and Pepperstone looks great.
Does that mean your account isn’t regulated by ASIC?
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I believe is not regulated by ASIC only by FSA .
I discussed this issue with them before.
The global one is under FSA. Only Australian can have ASIC.
Our money will still be in Australian Bank, something like Westpac, etc.
They have to separate the company to comply with regulator. So ICMarket Global and AU are still under the same operator. It’s true we can’t ask ASIC to help in case something happens. But since the money is in Australian Bank, they will be recovered from Australia.
This was information I got years ago. It’s the matter of how we trust IC Market reputation.
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Understood, thanks. I live in England anyway so it isn’t my problem.
But personally I wouldn’t trust them enough to use an account that isn’t regulated by ASIC.
They could open ASIC-regulated accounts, if they wanted to, for people who don’t live in Australia. It isn’t the regulator who’s stopping them. It’s their own choice to offer overseas customers only accounts that are “regulated” (lol) in Vanuatu or the Seychelles. That’s very alarming!
Hi,
I do not see that as alarming. I see it as offering their customers choice. I am all for customer protection but that comes at a cost (to the supplier) that inevitably needs to be passed on to the customer. The higher the compliance demanded by the jurisdiction in which the business is regulated, the higher the compliance cost for the supplier. In particular, if I were a citizen of a country that is NOT Australia, or the UK or some other “highly regulated countries”, I would probably not be too happy about another state in which a business is registered demanding my KYC details, and potentially applying some sort of tax to my profit and losses if choices exist that do not carry such requirements.
Now as a UK citizen, I choose to go with FCA regulated suppliers because they exist for UK citizen protection. But there are about 210 other nationalities out there who may choose otherwise.
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