IG Group’s Japanese subsidiary has temporarily stopped accepting new vanilla options trades from retail clients. The move comes only a few months after IG Japan introduced vanilla options trading for retail investors in February.
The launch expanded the broker’s derivatives offering in Japan, adding access to FX, commodities, and stock index options. In April, the company extended the service to corporate clients.
IG Japan Halts Retail Options Trading Now
IG Securities said the suspension became effective from today (Thursday) and will remain in place until further notice. The restriction applies only to individual accounts, while corporate clients will continue to have access to vanilla options trading without changes.
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Existing positions can still be closed via the platform, and settlement of expiring contracts will proceed as normal. All other IG Japan services remain available.
IG Securities did not specify what prompted the revision of the margin methodology or whether the decision was linked to market conditions, client positioning, or internal risk controls.
IG Japan Reshuffles Leadership, Products, Programs
Just a month ago, IG Group appointed Qu Zhao as Head of Japan. The move followed the departure of Tomoharu Furuichi, who stepped down after nearly seven years as Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer of IG Japan.
Separately in Japan, IG Securities stopped offering cryptocurrency ETF CFDs. The decision came after guidance from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, which stated that derivatives linked to overseas crypto ETFs are treated as crypto-related products and fall under domestic rules, as the issuance and sale of such ETFs remain prohibited in Japan.
In another operational change, IG Japan’s subsidiary ended its introductory trading programme for new clients. The programme had allowed reduced minimum trading sizes during the first two weeks after account opening and has since been phased out.
