Wells Fargo & Co. will no longer offer retail brokerage services to Canadian residents, the company said Thursday.
The change, first reported on Forbes' website, was a consequence of new Canadian regulations on retail brokerages, said Tony Mattera, a spokesman for Wells Fargo Advisors. Under the new rules, Wells Fargo would have had to register its brokerage operations with Canadian authorities and demonstrate compliance with the country's regulations on all Canadian citizens' accounts.
Wells has only 2,000 Canadian accounts, all of which were served out of U.S. offices. "Our goal is to provide a consistent experience to our clients," Mattera said. "So we advised those clients that we would be transferring their accounts to a broker of their choice."
