The controversial forex industry in Israel is about to face some serious changes. Israel Securities Authority (ISA) proposed a new law for regulating the market. Once accepted, the law will enforce maximum regulation over forex brokers, which have been so far operated, based on their own rules, making millions of dollars a year.
Under the supervision of the new legislation the companies will have to obtain permissions and licenses to engage in forex trading. In order to obtain the license, the companies will have to follow the strict requirements and insure the capital.
The ISA also plans to regulate the shareholders. For example, an individual with a financial fraud history will no longer be able to be a shareholder of a forex company.
Here are some of the issues associated with the forex activities listed by ISA:
1. Sophisticated financial instruments available for to customers with limited financial understanding. This leads to large amount of losses.
2. Customers’ account funds are completely controlled by the broker.
3. High leverage (for example 1:100). This provides large potential profit, but at the same time during high market volatility can clean the trading account to the last cent.
4. Currency rates offered to investors are not up-to-date.
5. Customers’ orders never get to the actual market – the broker assumes the risk.
The implementation of the law will require a costly budget to insure complex systems and computer supervision, along with additional manpower.
What does this all mean to Israeli Forex industry, the largest forex center in the world with almost no regulatory environment until now? It sure is a punch below the waist: most brokers will probably not accept Israeli traders; others will most likely close down or sell out. It will sure take some time for the legislation to start functioning properly, however the word is out – “The party is over”.