Plus500 gets licence for local South African subsidiary

Contracts-for-difference trading service provider Plus500 announced on Wednesday that the Financial Services Board of South Africa has granted the company a licence to operate as an authorised financial service provider in South Africa, through a newly created subsidiary Plus500SA Pty Ltd.

The AIM-traded firm’s announcement followed a similar one made on 7 February 2017, that the FSB had granted Plus500AU Pty Ltd - the company's Australian operating subsidiary - a licence to operate an online trading platform for customers to trade CFDs in South Africa.

It said the new licence would enable it to now build a fully staffed operation in South Africa, taking advantage of the local pool of talented professional staff.

The board added that the licence further demonstrated the scalability of Plus500's platform, as well as the further geographical diversification of its business, adding to its existing jurisdictions in UK, Australia, Cyprus, New Zealand, Israel and Singapore.

“We are pleased that the FSB has granted us this licence which will enable us to grow our global customer base further,” said Plus500 chief executive Asaf Elimelech.

“We continue to identify opportunities to add new licences in order to expand globally and diversify our geographical revenues.”