Israeli traders now have one less option when selecting an online broker. Yet another firm has withdrawn from the local market and canceled its application to a Israeli Security Authority (ISA) Trading Arena licence according to latest data from the regulators. The latest broker to give up on the demanding process is General Trade, registered under G.T Global Israel LTD.

All clients of General Trade in Israel are given by July 25th to close all positions. After this date the firm will only be able to close accounts and issue withdrawals for its former traders in the country.

This is just the latest development in a long process of consolidation and contraction in the Israeli market that started since the ISA began regulating retail online trading last year. We have seen companies one by one fold out of Israel, merge with larger players or completely shut down – mainly due to bans on entire instruments, such as binary options, and complex new requirements that make operating in the Israeli market uncompetitive and unappealing.

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In total, out of the twenty-one companies that started the license process with the ISA, only nine remain in the race today.

In a panel at the Finance Magnates TLV Conference last month, we got a very honest discussion about the state of the Israeli forex industry in light of the recent regulations. It seems like in the immediate future we might see that no firm will choose to stay in the local market as the regulators take an approach that is paternalistic and opportunistic – destroying the businesses they were mandated to streamline.