Retail forex and CFD broker Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) has issued a statement that it has decided to resume the onboarding new customers to its UK-based, FCA-regulated unit Plus500UK. It will begin taking clients into Plus500UK beginning next month.
Plus500 halted taking new clients into its UK unit back in May, as part of an ongoing investigation into its client data verification and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.
Since then, Plus500 has gone on a rollercoaster of having its stock price and results hit hard, a failed acquisition by Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC), and then a nice recovery in its latest financial results in Q3 to near-record levels, as revenues topped $80 million for the quarter.
Plus500 seems to not have skipped a beat during these seven months when it could not onboard clients into its UK unit, as it shifted new client acquisition to its Cyprus based, CySEC-regulated unit.
It should be noted that the decision taken back in May to stop taking new clients into Plus500UK was a voluntary one – at not time did the regulator force Plus500 to do so. The decision was part of an internal review Plus500 had made of its own systems and procedures.
The Plus500 statement reads as follows:
Resuming Plus500UK Onboarding Activity
Plus500 notes recent inaccurate external comments and confirms that is not subject to regulatory restrictions including preventing it from onboarding new customers. The Company therefore wishes to clarify that following the strengthening of the UK management team, both the Group and UK Boards intend that Plus500UK resumes the onboarding of new customers in January 2016.
The original Plus500 statement can be seen here.