In South Africa, a stockbroker must be well-qualified in economics or business studies. They also need good stock market knowledge and legal right to work there. In addition, a booming stockbroker should have solid sales and thinking skills, as customers rely on them to buy and sell stocks.
MT4 cost policy In South Africa:
In mid-February 2021, Metaquotes informed all customers; they are changing some essential aspects of their offer. The company decided to adjust costs to the subscription-based model for White Labels and MT4 Server products. They waived the license fee for all their products that ranged from $20,000 to $250,000 for server and setup fees for MT4 White labels cost $5000 or $7,500. This change led to increased initial affordability of Metaquotes products for new brokerage firms. However, monthly payments have increased significantly as brokers are forced to take all platforms into the much more expensive package (web, mobile, desktop). For example, desktop and mobile (most popular setup) WL clients paid just $2,000. If they wanted to start now, they would have to pay $4,000 together with a web terminal that was very unpopular before. A similar situation concerns White Labels, which now always costs $3,000 a month to package all platforms compared to $2,000 a month before the change if the broker chooses a mobile and desktop.
Total Server cost now starts at $5,000 per month for 1000 basic package accounts, a very affordable price for new brokers. However, each broker needs to be aware that not all the most needed features to run a brokerage, such as feed, bridge & liquidity connection, CRM, payment gateways, PAMM/MAM solution, and much more, are usually provided by WL providers in the package. Moreover, clients who also decide to purchase the server license need their hosting and IT/trading team to configure and manage the server, so the $5000 monthly fee is not the total cost of developing a successful brokerage. External technology providers may outsource these services, but additional fees are added to the monthly budget.
Consider which option is best to start a broker business: White Label with all features or license server. Even if a broker starts with a simple White Label solution, when the time comes, it's easy to migrate to full license using embedded migration tools.
Another thing that Metaquotes has changed in recent months is the compliance policy for new customers, especially MT4 White Labels. It was not communicated directly by any particular announcement, but now Metaquotes is much stricter to accept new WL clients. Previously, a White Label could be ordered using companies registered in different countries such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, South Africa, Singapore, etc., without having any license or categorization. Now, Metaquotes requires at least presenting business documents to confirm the company's ability to perform financial services in a particular jurisdiction. It means very few countries can now register for Metaquotes White Label, including Saint Vincent and The Grenadines.
Even if a customer already has an MT4/white label written on a UK company, he can no longer migrate it to another provider or order a new White Label unless he has a proper license. Besides changes in company requirements, Metaquotes also verifies the validity of all broker contact data such as phone number, email address, website, or domain ownership. Many scam companies probably caused all these policy changes using reputable jurisdictions to lure and mislead their customers.
Before you start, knowing the business aspects of running a brokerage company is essential. Therefore, if you have insufficient knowledge, it's worth having some consultants or trusted companies to help you choose the best option to create your own brokerage business.
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