Mindful of the fact that the South African market has seen certain Derivative brokers ‘default’ in recent times, the counterparty risk that a client is exposed to is of major importance when it comes to choosing a broker to trade through. Global CFDs acts as Introducing Broker to CMC Markets Plc. Therefore, the clients’ counterparty risk is represented by CMC Markets Plc (CMC) as opposed to Global CFDs, who essentially acts as a local partner to CMC.

Another area of concern to South African residents is the local regulation of unlisted products, such as CFDs, and the protection afforded to clients who engage in CFD trading. As a global company, headed out of London and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, all clients are protected by Client Money Segregation and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (www.fscs.org.uk).

Under FSA regulation clients' funds are segregated in a separate bank account which cannot be accessed by CMC regardless of their own financial status. These measures of protection to clients are not in place in South Africa and hence provide clients with an enhanced level of security when trading offshore.