Key Insights
- Capital.com temporarily halted onboarding new clients in its home British market to maintain service standards
- The pause follows a period of rapid expansion and hiring
- While new UK client signups are paused, existing clients are unaffected
LONDON (MarketsXplora) – Capital.com, a London-based online broker of foreign exchange and contracts-for-differences, has temporarily halted taking on new clients in its home UK market as it manages a rapid expansion, the company said on Friday.
The move applies only to Capital.com’s UK entity, Capital Com (UK) Limited, which is regulated by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority.
Existing clients of the UK arm are unaffected and can continue trading as normal, while new customers can still be onboarded through group entities outside Britain, Capital.com said on its website.
“The company has grown rapidly as a business, and Capital.com wants to make sure that all its systems, controls, products and services are provided to the high standards that are demanded by clients, management, shareholders and regulators,” it added.
The move comes as Capital.com has bulked up its London workforce in the past two years, hiring several former senior staff from UK spread-betting giant IG Group.
In early 2022, it appointed former IG chief Peter Hetherington as CEO, though he departed last year and was replaced by another IG alumni, Kypros Zoumidou, who had been IG’s Commercial Director International.
Capital.com offers online brokerage services in multiple markets, operating licensed subsidiaries in the UK, Australia and Cyprus.
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While headquartered in London, the group is controlled by Victor Prokopenya, a computer scientist and lawyer from Belarus who also oversees the Currency.com crypto platform.
Industry analysts said the UK pause reflected a sensible step to ensure Capital.com had sufficient resources to cope with rapid client growth, including in personnel, infrastructure and oversight.
They added IG had been a fertile recruiting ground as Capital.com built out its own technology and faced greater competition from IG and rivals like CMC Markets and Plus500 in its core CFD and forex markets.
“It’s clearly a period of rapid scaling for Capital.com, so this move shows prudence in terms of not overextending themselves while playing catch up on systems, controls and staffing,” said one London-based industry consultant.
The UK accounts for a lucrative slice of Capital.com’s global business.
It is unclear how long the temporary suspension on new UK client registrations will remain in place, with details scarce on what criteria Capital.com is using to judge readiness to resume onboarding fully.
“This is about quality control and scaling sustainably for growth rather than Capital.com facing any underlying solvency or operational issue,” the consultant added.