Why IG Markets Closed & Left South Africa

IG never gave a full public reason for leaving South Africa. In its May 2025 email to clients, IG called the exit a difficult decision that wasn’t taken lightly, but it didn’t explain why. When it closed the Johannesburg office in early 2026, the only reason it gave was “operational efficiency.”

The likely explanation is strategic rather than a sign of trouble at the company. IG was doing well globally at the time and expected strong annual profits. South Africa was a small, competitive market for a large international broker. Local rules also require a separate licence to offer CFDs, and rivals like CFI and XS were picking up new local licences. Keeping a fully staffed office and a separate rand-account business probably didn’t pay off.

The exit happened quickly. New trades stopped on 28 May 2025, and clients had until 28 July 2025 to close their positions. Rand accounts were then shut down, while clients with offshore IG accounts kept them

It was inevitable. IG was offering SA clients 1:30 leverage in a market where rival brokers were offering up to 1:10,000 leverage. There was no way people were gonna trade with them with such low leverage.

In SA almost all traders prefer the Rand account currency which deprives brokers from conversion fees except the broker creates a compulsory USD wallet. This also made business unprofitable for them

The FSCA requiring brokers to get both FSP & ODP licenses is just over-regulating the market

IG came to Kenya too but ran way 😂

Seems like IG is already too big so they don't need to be in SA