eStar Online Trading has been forced to halt its online share trading service because it was offering the service under another licence.
eStar made the enforceable undertaking to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) who said that the online share trading company could not use the dealer’s licence of an associated company, Barton Capital Securities, to sell its online trading services.
ASIC says that a provider of an online share trading service must hold a dealers licence in its own right.
eStar has agreed to cease offering its share trading system to the public until it can obtain a dealer’s licence. In the mean time, the online trader says that it will provide the trading system only to other licensed security dealers so that existing clients of eStar and future clients will be dealing with a licensed security dealer.
eStar will be applying for a restricted securities licence rather than an unrestricted one, as originally intended.
