Quote from BlueHorseshoe:
This is likely the crux of the matter. Yes, American firms can generally turn customers away at will, but doing so can obviously be costly in terms of revenue and profitability, which in the end is all they really care about.
But the 'need to know one's customer' and anti money laundering regulations in the US have been stepped up dramatically, along the lines of all the headaches we hear about at the international airports.
Nana, you are an Iranian expat citizen living somewhere in the middle east. It is understood or assumed that forged or fake documents, from passports, birth certificates, to domecile documents are available for a nickle in the region you reside.
Thus, my best guess is that a senior CSR exec at the brokerage simply determined that they couldn't reach a certain comfort level with determining who you are and where your money is coming from. Quite reasonable IMO. To put it more bluntly, Iran is actively sponsoring terrorist organizations - who is Nana Trader and is he worth the risk? Possibly not.
If you really want an account with this firm, you might enquire whether this is the case and if so, how you might go the extra mile to demonstrate to them that you are just an average shmoe trying to make a buck.
But hostility and threats are a dead end.
