A broker's world is made of paperwork. I hear this "there's too much paperwork to deal with Americans" thing all the time and it's just baffling to me. Have you ever tried to set up a business in France? Any business? Talk about paperwork and legal requirements, it's insane compared to doing so in the U.S. And yet thousands of companies manage just fine. Any broker anywhere has myriad legal and reporting requirements, you just put processes into place to deal with them and hire a good compliance team. I can't believe that the incremental increase in paperwork necessary to give you access to one of the biggest markets in the world is soooo onerous that it's beyond the capability of a legitimate firm outside the U.S. Is it a bit of a pain, sure. Is it more than it should be, absolutely. Is it worth throwing away a significant chunk of business for? That seems like a pretty petty and weak excuse. Note I say legitimate firm because the real reason the vast majority of bucket shops don't operate in the U.S. is because they're bucket shops and would face legal action for the way they run their "businesses".
Agree establishing business everywhere has its own problems somewhere its bribery somewhere it is red tapes and compliancy issues. Bucketshops or even reliable brokers outside US won't simply meet the competition with domestic brokers which will be always considered more safe and fair. US clients just don't worth the money they deposit (and lose), other world is full of yet-to-become traders, forex trading niche is basically just started to be filled up with quality services.
Funny that you guys are speaking of bucket shops. Got this in the inbox this morning. Maybe it will answer some questions? http://www.cmegroup.com/notices/market-regulation/2017/02/SER-7844.pdf
Actually i think that US traders are being restricted by the US law and it might be due to taxation purposes that the govt want their US traders to invest in their own country and pay taxes to the govt on any gain.
I don't think CME is worried about losing volume to bucket shop binary operators. The venn diagram between the dollars invested by their existing customers and dollars invested by potential bucket shop customers probably looks something like this: If anything it's the casino's who don't want the binary operators, or is that what you were saying all along? If so, makes sense!
I think the policy for U.S. is simply too hard to handle for many brokers which is why you see it. I don't think it will change either.