Australia is the one market on this list where the retail derivatives rulebook is fully built, publicly enforced and specific. ASIC licenses the firms, ASIC issued the product intervention order that caps retail CFD leverage, and ASIC publishes what it does about firms that ignore it. If you are launching from Sydney, you are not looking for a grey structure. You are looking for software that can be configured to sit inside a rulebook.
That is a different buying conversation from the one we have with founders in less prescriptive markets, and it is a more pleasant one, because the requirements are written down.
Who this is for
Firms in Sydney, and across Australia, that either hold an AFS licence covering derivatives or are working towards one, plus prop firms whose model sits alongside that rather than inside it. Brokerage means client money rules, best execution and reporting. Prop means evaluations, simulated capital and payouts out of your own budget. The line between them and the reasons it matters are in broker versus prop firm.
The regulatory backdrop, described not advised
ASIC administers the Australian Financial Services licensing regime. A firm dealing in or making a market in over the counter derivatives for retail clients needs an AFS licence with the right authorisations, and it carries client money obligations, design and distribution duties, dispute resolution membership and reporting. ASIC's product intervention order for retail CFDs restricts leverage by asset class, requires negative balance protection and standardises margin close-out.
None of that is advice, and the detail changes. Read the current instruments and take Australian legal counsel. For background on the mechanisms, see ASIC regulation explained, ASIC versus the FCA, negative balance protection and client fund segregation.
SINGUARD does not hold an AFS licence and never will, because we sell software rather than financial services. Your firm holds the authorisation, the client money and the compliance programme. We give you the controls to configure the software to match.
What we deliver, and what it has to prove in Australia
eTrader is the platform: web, iOS and Android, data feed included. Leverage caps, instrument availability, markups, swap and commission settings are per server and per client tier, so retail and wholesale clients can be treated differently within one deployment. Margin and close-out behaviour is configurable, and every change is written to an audit trail.
The Broker CRM carries client records, KYC and client categorisation state, deposits and withdrawals, reporting and that audit trail. The Prop Firm CRM carries challenge design, drawdown and consistency rules, breach evidence, funded promotion and payout approvals. For a licensed firm the audit trail is the part that earns its keep, because the question an auditor asks is not what the setting is now but who changed it and when.
Fully managed, live in 24 hours once your own licensing and paperwork are done.
Payments and banking
Australia is an easier banking market than most on this list, and a harder card market than founders expect. Domestic rails are fast and reliable, PayID and NPP mean AUD transfers clear in seconds, and an Australian licensed firm can usually hold proper segregated client accounts with a domestic institution. Card acquiring for a derivatives merchant is still a high-risk category, and credit card funding of retail derivatives accounts is restricted, so the deposit mix skews to bank transfer far more than it does in Asia or the Gulf.
Background reading: banking for trading firms, client fund segregation and payment approval rates. The CRM reconciles what your processors and bank report. It is not a payment institution and it never touches the money.
Hours, clients and structure
Sydney is UTC+10 or UTC+11 depending on daylight saving, which puts you first into the trading week. The Sydney open is Monday morning for you and Sunday evening for most of the world, so your desk absorbs the weekend gap risk before anyone else is awake, something worth planning support cover around. London opens in your evening and New York overnight.
Client base is English-first, with substantial Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking communities, so the portal being multilingual is a commercial choice rather than a compliance one. Structurally, Australian firms tend to be single-entity and domestically licensed, sometimes with a separate offshore arm for non-Australian clients. Where a firm runs both, the per-server configuration matters, because the two books of clients cannot share one leverage setting.
Talk to the people who built it
Alex Onta built eTrader, with Roman Onta on design, and leads it. The Broker CRM, the Prop Firm CRM, Scalegram and CopySignals were built by Alex Onta & Roman Onta together, and they carry the compliance, payments and structuring side between them. Book a call or text us. Bring your authorisation scope and we will walk through how the settings map onto it.
Other markets: Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, and the full list of locations.
Where SINGUARD is based, and where we meet firms in Sydney
All of the software, the contracts and the policies come from SGHK Softwares Limited in Hong Kong, the holding company that builds and licenses eTrader and both CRMs. The team works out of Dubai, where both Executive Directors, Alex Onta and Roman Onta, live for most of the year, and our licensed UAE entity is SINGUARD GLOBAL FZC in Ajman Free Zone. We hold no office or licence in Australia, and none is needed: the platform is delivered and managed from our own clustered servers, so a firm in Sydney runs exactly what a firm anywhere else runs, and your licence, your client money and your compliance obligations stay entirely with your own entity.
Being in Dubai keeps the team on the industry circuit and within easy reach of Sydney for calls and meetings, in a time zone that overlaps most of the trading world.
In person, the place to find us is the industry circuit. The team attends Forex Expo Dubai and the other major shows, wearing the SINGUARD and eTrader shirts, and you can walk up without an appointment, ask for a live demo of the terminal and both CRMs, and talk to the Executive Directors directly in English, Italian, Romanian or Russian. See where to find us at the expo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SINGUARD have an office in Sydney?
No. SINGUARD holds no office, entity, licence or staff in Sydney or anywhere in Australia. We are a software company serving firms established there, and the team travels to industry events.
Is SINGUARD licensed by ASIC?
No. SINGUARD sells software and does not hold an Australian Financial Services licence. It is not a broker, bank or payment institution. Authorisation, client money and compliance stay with your firm.
Can an Australian prop firm use the Prop Firm CRM?
Yes. The Prop Firm CRM runs evaluations, breach detection, funded accounts, certificates and payout approvals for firms operating from Australia the same way it does elsewhere. How your firm is structured and regulated is your decision and your lawyer's.
Can the platform respect ASIC leverage limits for retail clients in Australia?
Yes. Leverage, instrument availability, markups and risk settings are configured per server and per client tier, so a firm can apply the limits its own authorisation requires. Setting the correct limits is the firm's compliance responsibility, not ours.
Related Reading
ASIC regulation explained
How the AFS licence works, what the CFD product intervention order changed, and who it binds.
RegulationASIC versus the FCA
Two mature retail derivatives regimes compared on leverage, client money and reporting.
Prop FirmsBest prop firm software
The features to test before signing, from the rules engine to the payout queue.