Financial Services Guide
1.FINANCIAL SERVICES GUIDE
1.1 This Financial Services Guide (“FSG”) is dated 11 September
2020 and has been prepared by
TOP1 Markets (“TOP1”, “we”, “our”,
“us”) in compliance with our obligations as the holder of an Vanuatu
Financial Services Commission (VFSC License No 40436) (“VFSC”).
1.2This FSG has been designed to help you decide whether to use
any of the products and services that we offer. The FSG is an
important document and a regulatory requirement under the Corporations
Act 2001 (Cth) (“Corporations Act”). It contains information about who
we are, remuneration, any associations or relationships we may have
with financial product issuers, details of any potential conflicts of
interest, our internal and external dispute resolution procedures and
how you can access them, information on how we handle your personal
information, and how we can be contacted.
When providing our services to you, we are also required to issue you
with other documents. We will give you a Product Disclosure Statement
if we offer to issue our financial products to you. Before you open an
account with TOP1, we will provide you with a Product Disclosure
Statement which contains important information regarding:
• the terms and conditions for the products and services we offer;
• the features of our products and services;
• any significant risks associated with our products; and
• details of fees and charges for our products and services.
You should read the PDS carefully prior to acquiring any financial
products from us.
You will also receive our Client Agreement, which is a governing
contract between us and you. These terms will dictate the rights and
conditions of each party and contains important information about
transacting with us.
Prior to trading you will be required to fill out an online or paper
Account Application. We will also provide you with transaction
confirmations over the trading platform.
1.3This FSG contains general information only. If you have
further questions regarding this FSG please contact us.
2.WHO WE ARE
2.1TOP1 Markets holds an Vanuatu Financial Services Commission
(VFSC License No 40436).
3. HOW TO CONTACT US
We are the providing entity of the services contained herein and you
may contact us as follows.
TOP1 Markets
Address: Room 11, 2/F., Bougainville Building, Bougainville Street,
Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Email: cs@top1markets.com
Website: www.top1markets.com
4.SERVICES
TOP1 is licensed by VFSC to (amongst other authorisations) provide
dealing and execution services in Margin FX products and to give
financial product advice. It is authorised to deal by issuing and
making a market in its own foreign exchange contracts and contracts
for difference.
We do not provide personal financial advice. Any representation
whether verbal or written made during the course of TOP1’s
relationship with you must not be construed as personal advice that
has taken into consideration your financial situation, objectives and
needs.
When you trade in the TOP1 OTC derivative products we act as principal
and we are the issuer of the products. This means we are the
counterparty to every trade and have no obligation to act in your best
interests.
5.HOW WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES
We will receive instructions from you via an on-line trading platform
or via phone. If you give us instructions via phone, you must confirm
that such instructions have been effected by us by checking your
account on our trading platform.
6.GENERAL ADVICE
We will only provide you with general advice, which does not take
account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, you
are required to ensure that you obtain prior advice regarding the
suitability of our products and services for your personal financial
needs, objectives and circumstances, from a licensed and independent
professional advisor.
While TOP1 believes the general advice and information we provide is
accurate and reliable, neither TOP1 nor its directors, officers,
employees, contractors or associates assume any responsibility for the
accuracy and completeness or currency of that advice and information.
7.FEES AND OTHER PRODUCT COSTS
We are entitled to any fees generated as a result of our provision of
OTC derivative products to you. Our PDS provides detailed information
about specific costs, transaction fees and charges associated with
each of our financial products, as well as with different types of
trading accounts that we offer. Further written details can be given
to you on request. The common fees and charges associated with the
financial products offered by us may include any or all of the
following:
Spreads
(1) We may charge spreads (the difference between the bid and the ask
price) on your trades in favour of TOP1. Details of spreads can be
found on our website. For Margin FX Contracts the spreads will be
charged in the quote currency of the instrument being traded, which
can then be converted into the base currency of the Trading Account in
order to determine your cost of trading.
(2) Spreads vary according to the market concerned and are subject to
variation, especially in volatile market conditions, and we may change
our spreads at any time. The applicable spreads are provided in our
website and our Platform. Because dealing spreads depend upon activity
in an underlying market the spread when you close a order may be
different to the spread when you opened it.
Payments of Margin
Margin is not a cost, however Margin is the amount of capital required
by TOP1 as collateral in your Trading Account for you to open a
Transaction. The way that we calculate Margin varies based on the
Instrument being traded and the details of the underlying asset.
Margin requirements will be displayed on our Platform and we recommend
that you check the details of your Contract to understand the amount
of Margin required.
Overnight Funding
Any open Transaction held by you at the end of the trading day on
which the relevant Instrument is traded or over the weekend when the
relevant underlying market is closed, shall automatically be rolled
over to the next business day to avoid an automatic close and physical
settlement of the Transaction. You acknowledge that, when rolling such
Transactions to the next business day, an Overnight Funding charge
will be either added to or subtracted from the balance of your Trading
Account. The Overnight Funding charge is a constant percentage of the
position value and is based on a number of factors including amongst
others, whether the Transaction is a Buy or a Sell, interest rates,
Instrument differentials, daily price fluctuations and other economic
and market related factors. The Overnight Funding for each Instrument
is displayed on the TOP1 Platform. In deciding whether to open a
Transaction for a specific Instrument, you acknowledge that you are
aware of the Overnight Funding charge.
No interest is paid or received if you open and close a position in
the same trading day.
Inactivity Fee
Fees may be payable by you by virtue of the fact that TOP1 incurs
expenses maintaining your account for trading, regardless of your
actual usage.
If there are no open positions or trades on your account, it will be
considered inactive from the next calendar day (‘Inactive Day’)
following the last trade. For a period of at least 180 days after the
Inactive Day, you will be liable to pay a fee (‘Inactivity Fee’) in
return for the provision of administrative and information services
and the continued availability of your Trading Account. You should be
aware that a payment activity (i.e. deposit or withdrawal) and a
pending order is not deemed as a transaction.
You shall pay Inactivity Fees as agreed with you from time to time or
we may deduct such Fees from any funds held by us on your behalf.
The Inactivity Fee will be equal to the lesser of the remaining
balance in your account or USD $10, levied monthly in arrears and in
the Base Currency of your Trading Account. For the avoidance of doubt,
where the Inactivity Fee occurs during a partial month, that entire
month is counted in the calculation of the Inactivity Fee.
Upon assessment of the Inactivity Fee your Trading Account may be
closed.
Other Fees
Please visit our website www.top1markets.com for further details and
applicable costs.
Payments to third parties and employees
Any payment by TOP1 to third parties and/or its employees must comply
with financial services regulation in Vanuatu and the Future of
Financial Advice (‘FOFA’) reforms. In particular any fee paid by us to
a third party who:
• Is an VFSC licensee, or its representative; and
• Provides financial product service to retail clients (“Authorised Third Party”); or
• Is an employee
• Provides financial product service to retail clients (“Authorised Third Party”); or
• Is an employee
Whether as your agent or otherwise and that relates in any way to your
trading with us, must not be what is termed ‘conflicted remuneration’.
Employees of TOP1 are not renumerated on a commission basis. No
related body corporate of TOP1 nor any director of TOP1 or its related
bodies corporate service receive any commission or other benefits
attributable to the OTC derivatives products offered by us. Our staff
are renumerated for the provision of services to our clients at the
discretion of senior management having regard to standards of service
to clients and feedback from them, their contribution to the firm in
general and reaching a range of personal performance targets. Our
employees receive salaries, performance bonuses based on achievement
of predetermined business objectives such as client service, client
satisfaction, risk management and leadership/team contribution.
8.ASSOCIATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS
We have no associations or relationships with any issuer of any
financial products that might reasonably be expected to be capable of
influencing us in providing any of our authorised services.
9.PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
In compliance with s912B of the Corporations Act and VFSC RG 126, we
maintain professional indemnity insurance in connection with the
financial products and services we provide, including any claims in
relation to the conduct of our former representatives/employees.
10.PRIVACY
Your privacy is important to us and we are committed to compliance
with the Privacy Act and the Vanuatu Privacy Principles. We may
disclose your personal information to external parties who act on our
behalf in the operation of our business or in connection with the
transactions to be undertaken. Such external parties are required and
committed to protecting your privacy and where they are offshore we
take reasonable steps to ensure that to the maximum extent reasonably
possible any information sent has the same level of privacy protection
as we provide here in Vanuatu. TOP1 will not otherwise disclose your
personal information without your consent, except as authorised or
required by privacy laws. Please refer to our privacy policy on our
website, and contact us if you have any concerns.