IG Group becomes Swiss bank as FINMA approves its license

Today marked a great achievement for one of the global majors in online trading – IG Group, as it obtained a long-coveted license as a bank/securities dealer in Switzerland.

Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has cleared IG Bank S.A. to operate in the country, with the firm start date of operations to be announced in the immediate future, a corporate priority that the firm has been concentrating on during the recent months which was comprehensively covered in the firm’s interim management statement earlier in September.

Today the name of the new Swiss business entity appeared on FINMA’s list of Authorised Institutions.

Below is the full detail of the newly licensed entity as listed by FINMA:

Name: IG Bank S.A.
City: Geneve
Licensing type: Bank/Securities Dealer
Bank Type: Foreign-controlled bank
Securities Dealer Type: Foreign-controlled securities dealer

This represents a huge milestone for IG Group as the company enters one of the most respected markets, famous for its strict regulations and high business standards. This particular license puts IG Group in alignment with highly respected and well-established Swiss banks and FX brokers like Swissquote and Dukascopy.

The core of the services that IG Group aims to provide from its Swiss office is apparent from the name of the new business. It it is worth adding that the Securities dealer license enables the new entity to market services of a very wide variety. The Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading (SESTA) states that securities include all “standardized certificates which are suitable for mass trading, rights not represented by a certificate with similar functions (book-entry securities) and derivatives”. This means that IG Group will be able to unite the roles of a bank and a provider of Forex and CFD trading.

The group is not halting its efforts with regard to global expansion – the next target is Dubai, where IG plans to obtain the necessary regulatory nods and to start operating in 2015. Over the past five years, IG has opened nine new offices across the globe, with the first steps in Switzerland made early in 2014.

For the full list of FINMA’s authorized banks and securities dealers, click here

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