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Plus500 has unfrozen over 8,000 accounts - and only 457 customers have left

Oscar Williams-Grut   

Plus500 has unfrozen over 8,000 accounts - and only 457 customers have left

Plus500 advert Facebook page

Plus500/Facebook

An image from Plus500's Facebook page.

Troubled London-listed investment firm Plus500 just updated us on its regulatory crisis.

The company says 10,147 customers have submitted new identification documents to reactive their accounts and around 8,457 have been reactivated since it began overhauling regulation.

Of those only around 5%, or 457, have withdrawn all their funds. 61% of those who have been unfrozen have started trading again.

Israel-based Plus500 was forced to freeze thousands of accounts at its UK subsidiary around three weeks ago after the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, told the company its anti-money laundering procedures weren't up to scratch.

That sent Plus500's share price tumbling and the company, which is low on staff compared to rivals, has been scrambling to get accounts back online and procedures up to scratch ever since. Gambling software company Playtech swooped in with a lowball bid last week, which Plus500's embattled management team accepted.

Plus500 is still facing a backlog of at least 14,000 frozen accounts, saying today that 23,000 people have logged in to the site since the account freeze began in the middle of last month.

The company is also still unable to accept new clients, meaning it hasn't agreed anti-money laundering procedures with the regulator.

CEO Gal Haber said today: "We have made progress in re-approving customer accounts during the last week and as a result expect a majority of clients who have completed the remedial AML procedures to be unfrozen within the previously expressed timeline. This will be followed by contacting inactive customers."

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