Originally posted by Babak
lol...its not the regulators its the banks shaking in their boots!
no kidding...........
The Banks are the ones behind the blockade of US discount brokers.
The regulators will say that they are simply looking after our interests which is simply a smokescreen.
The reality is that US Securities Laws also protect Canadians and according to lawyers these American laws are actually much better for investors than Canadian Securities Laws.
Two questions for regulators would be:
1) Why have they never cared about Canadians, who have for many years opened US Futures accounts mainly because Canadian brokers would not deal in the futures markets? (these US futures brokers were never forced to register in Canada)
2) Why do they simply care about US discount brokers registering? (There has been no crackdown on countries whose securities laws are much worse, like many offshore countries)
The answers are obvious. The banks are behind the blockage because they know firms like IB will put pressure on revenues. Allowing IB into the marketplace will change the industry forever.
A Security Commission's mandate is suppose to protect investors. It appears however, that regulators are actually protecting the big five banks.
I hope regulators will prove me wrong by allowing discount brokers into the country. But I'll believe it when it happens and perhaps the best way to accomplish this might be through a class action lawsuit.
In the meantime, they can simply defer IB's registration via deficiency letters.