At the time of writing, Pelican Network is the only regulated copy trading provider in South Africa.

For years, copy trading in South Africa has run without a directly regulated provider standing behind it. Brokers worked around it and traders didn’t think about it, mostly because they didn’t have to.

Pelican Network has now received regulatory approval to operate in South Africa. It’s our fourth jurisdiction, joining the UK, Cyprus and Mauritius. Applications for the US and UAE are in motion.

The regulator’s approach here draws directly from the same framework the FCA uses to license copy trading in the UK.

At the time of writing, Pelican Network is the only regulated copy trading provider in South Africa.

In the UK, after years of a maturing regulatory environment, exactly two providers hold this status: us and eToro. South Africa has one. And we’re planning on keeping it that way.

There were brokers in SA waiting for this, and we’re already in the process of onboarding them. If you want to beat the queue, contact the team at sales@pelicantrading.io

Regulation isn’t something we collect for the sake of a longer list on a slide. Each licence does a specific job, covering a specific part of the world.

South Africa’s regulator modelled its approach on the UK’s, which helps the industry given how much regulatory ground the FCA has covered on copy trading over the years. Rather than building a framework from scratch, South Africa used a tested template and adapted it for its own market.

The approval gives us a foothold across the wider African market, not just South Africa itself, since brokers operating regionally have historically had to treat South Africa as its own separate compliance problem.

CySEC regulation carries passporting rights across the EU, so a licence issued in Cyprus isn’t only valid in Cyprus. It extends into other EU member states, including Germany and France, under the same regulatory recognition. For brokers running European operations, that’s one licence covering a continent, not one licence per country.

The UK sits on its own, under the FCA, in a regulatory environment that’s arguably the most mature and closely watched of the four. Only two providers hold regulatory status in the UK after years of the framework developing. South Africa has one, on day one.

Mauritius covers the rest of the world. It’s the broadest of the four licences by geography, built to support brokers operating outside the EU, the UK and Africa, in markets that don’t yet have their own dedicated copy trading framework.

We’re working to supplement this coverage with direct applications in the US and UAE, rather than leaving those markets to sit under the general Mauritius umbrella indefinitely.

None of this is regulation for its own sake.

A single global licence doesn’t exist, and any provider claiming blanket coverage under one framework is glossing over how fragmented this space actually is.

Structuring it region by region – UK, Europe, Africa, and everywhere else – means brokers get a licence that actually applies to the market they’re operating in, not a general claim that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny in a specific jurisdiction.

That’s the standard we’re trying to hold ourselves to: copy trading done properly in each market, not copy trading done once and stretched to cover markets it was never built for.

For brokers building or expanding a South African offering, or anywhere else across the four regions, this changes the starting point. Regulated infrastructure isn’t something to bolt on once the regulator catches up. It’s already there.

Reach out to sales@pelicantrading.io to discuss the regions you cover.

Copy trading involves significant risk. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how copy trading works and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

This is a marketing communication and should not be taken as investment advice, personal recommendation, or an offer of, or solicitation to buy or sell, any financial instruments. This material has been prepared without having regard to any particular investment objectives or financial situation. Any references to past or future performance of a financial instrument are not, and should not be taken as a reliable indicator of future results.