Regulation (FSCA Oversight)
Mt.Cook firmly believes in and supports regulatory oversight in our industry to help with the safe-guarding of our customers asset's, and ensure that their best interests are always being served so that they can trade with confidence.
The Mt.Cook Group of Companies
Multiple entities.
South Africa
South African resident clients trade with the company “Atlantic Pearl Financial (PTY) Ltd” trading as Mt.Cook SA (holding registration # 2019/140800/07) directly, as the parent license holder with the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA). This entity is an authorised Financial Services Provider under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act No 37 of 2002 – FSP number 50420.
Global / International
International clients trade with company “Atlantic Pearl Ltd.” trading as Mt.Cook International (Bloomberg LEI: 254900XZNJPUMGKTRK15) Company No. C 53330 / 17164 in Saint Kitts and Nevis (formerly registered in the Commonwealth of Dominica). This entity is a duly appointed Juristic Representative, of Atlantic Pearl Financial (Pty) Ltd, (Registration # 2019/140800/07).
FSCA Oversight
The FSCA is a prestigious regulatory body in South Africa. They are the government of South Africa’s financial regulatory agency responsible for the entire non-banking financial services industry in South Africa. It is an independent body that supervises and regulates the financial services industry in the public interest. This includes the regulation of the biggest stock exchange in continental Africa – the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The FSCA also regulate all Capital Markets, Financial Service Providers, Collective Investment Schemes, Insurers, and Retirement Funds etc… (More information can be found here: https://www.fsca.co.za/).
Why Multiple Registrations?
Mt.Cook (a trading name for the Atlantic Pearl companies) has been built for both proficiency and efficiency and has been purposely structured as a multi-entity, and multi-jurisdictional group of companies consisting of Mt.Cook South Africa, Mt.Cook International (together, the “Mt.Cook Group of Companies”). This is to help better serve a diverse and growing local AND international client base in the most efficient way.
Mt.Cook is not a traditional retail brokerage and has been generally designed as a brokerage with a heavy focus on technology, where industry professionals can come together from around the globe to access institutional quality trading conditions and get things done in a professional and “no-nonsense” fashion (i.e., without the burdensome red tape, hassle, slow pace, and bureaucracy often found at many of the larger retail market maker trading shops).
How Else Do We Keep You Safe?
Here are a few ways in which we run a tight ship around here.
PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
Mt.Cook falls under all required mandatory professional indemnity insurance policy which includes negligence, fraud, errors and omissions, breach of duty and civil liability, business interruption, cyber security and technology breaches, dishonest conduct of employees.
CLIENT MONEY HANDLING
Mt.Cook maintains stringent compliance policies in all aspects of its business to ensure that they remain up-to-date on all obligations. As such, client capital is held in segregated accounts, independent from the company’s working and operating capital.
REPUTABLE COUNTER-PARTIES
Mt.Cook works with reputable vendors, custodian banks, prime brokers (ODP’s), stakeholders and technology providers. We are very discerning when it comes to our industry partners in order to fulfill our mandate of providing clients with a safe, stable, proficient and robust brokerage.
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
Mt.Cook is fully compliant with, and strictly adheres to guidelines set by both local and International Anti-money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Acts and Policies. A carefully designed AML/KYC Progamme and Risk assessment have been designed and put in place to screen for politically exposed persons (PEPs) and to keep Mt.Cook and our clients protected from engaging with criminals and money launderers. Mt.Cook screens our applicants against various watch lists and databases prior to being accepted as clients. A brief overview of our compliance program can be found here.
PRIVACY
Your privacy is assured by Mt.Cook which applies to our existing clients as well as inquiries made by prospective clients. We are advocates of privacy, so would not compromise the privacy of any party when we in fact wish to teach privacy and protect privacy and this is held as a high priority.
We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable laws to protect our client’s non-public personal information and under no circumstances do we disclose any client data to third parties unless forced to do so by court order or unless otherwise required by law to a regulatory, law enforcement, or other authoritative body having the power to do so. An overview of our Privacy Policy can be found here.