Hi, EliteTrader community I'm getting a little desperate. I was slated to trade for a FINRA-regulated prop firm, but now I've been told I can't trade with them. The firm rep I was on the phone with apparently wasn't quite sure whether it was company policy or regulatory compliance, but the gist is that they won't let me trade with them because I am an US citizen living abroad, and would actually like to find out themselves whether they should have such a rule. Now, I've searched high and low for FINRA rules that say so, but for the life of me I can't find anything that talks about expats trading with regulated firms. It doesn't help one bit that I've called FINRA, they redirected me to the NASD Office of General Counsel and they told me to leave a voicemail. Short of harassing FINRA until I can get a straight answer, I figured I'd post here and see whether if anyone in here has had the same displeasure of dealing with this, and what they found out.
It's probably related to FACTA, which required the firm to report to IRS your account information every year. Too much hassle for the firm.
I'm thinking it has something to do with FACTA too. I managed to talk to a FINRA regulator and she couldn't find anything on expats. I'm also trying to get ahold of a CBOE regulator since the firm is also registered with that exchange, but if it was an exchange rule it'd sound a lot nicer than "hey you'll be a drag to our operations". If that does happen to be the case, should I expect the same kind of attitude from other firms? It sucks but if it's due to FATCA I would imagine a lot of firms would try their dandiest to avoid filling more paperwork for the IRS.
WSJ had an article about some Swiss banks are turning down Americans abroad because of the FACTA requirements.
I think the fact that this would happen is obvious, not? Why risk huge claims from the US government for doing microscopic business with US citizens? US citizens will become more ands more isolated all over the world because of the way their government is acting. Since a few years, before you do anything for any US citizen, you should ask yourself: what risk do i take, what can happen to me? You can also not think about it and simply ignore any US citizen. Less risky and much more logical.
Yeah, ditto with smaller banks and credit unions in here. Eek. Anyhow, I got in touch with another FINRA-regulated firm and they don't have a problem with expats. I wonder what the deal with me is...