Pelican Becomes South Africa's First Licensed Copy Trading Provider

Copy trading technology provider Pelican has obtained regulatory authorisation in South Africa, giving it a local framework to offer copy trading services to brokers in the market.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority granted the licence in June 2026 under FSP No. 55408 to London & Eastern LLP, the regulatory entity through which Pelican provides its copy trading services.

The authorisation covers portfolio management and investment advice services. Pelican describes the approval as the first licence of its kind in South Africa for copy trading.

The structure follows the regulatory approach it has used in the UK and Europe, where copy trading is treated as more than a pure technology service when trades are automatically replicated across client accounts.

Copy Trading Moves Beyond Software

Pelican provides white-label copy trading infrastructure for brokers, including mobile, desktop and API-based solutions. Its public materials list integrations with trading platforms including MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader.

The South African authorisation gives the company a stronger B2B position in a market where brokers already sell FX and CFD products to retail clients.

For regulated brokers, adding copy trading also raises a permissions question around the technology provider behind the service and the specific model being used.

Mike Read, co-founder of Pelican, made that point directly in a comment to Finance Magnates. “When technology is facilitating investment decisions across client accounts, appropriate regulatory oversight should be fundamental, not optional,” he said.

"For a South African regulated broker looking to offer copy trading through a regulated specialist technology provider, Pelican is now the only option."

South Africa Becomes a Regulated Route

For brokers, the regulatory question depends on how the copy trading model is structured. If signals are automatically turned into trades across client accounts, the service can move beyond software and into regulated portfolio management or investment advice.

That is the approach Pelican says it has followed in the UK and Europe, and is now taking into South Africa.

The company told Finance Magnates that the South African authorisation adds another jurisdiction as it works on permissions in additional territories.

Pelican has not disclosed which South African brokers it is onboarding first, or which trading platforms the licence will support.