Controversial investment software Robinhood has indefinitely postponed its UK launch as it wrests with criticism from US politicians after one of its customers killed themselves.
Robinhood claims to be "democratizing finance" for millions of new traders by allowing financial products to be purchased and sold without charging a fee or depositing a minimum amount.
Yet it came under extreme scrutiny in the US after Alex Kearns, a 20-year-old student, killed himself last month, evidently in the erroneous belief that using the device he lost $730,000 (£575,000).
The app has had a waiting list of over 250,000 people in the UK as of last week ahead of a launch scheduled for this year. Yet Robinhood indicated in an email to people on the waiting list that it had postponed its plans to respond to the pressure it faces in its domestic market."We are sorry to announce that we made the difficult decision to delay our UK launch indefinitely," said Robinhood, which has 13 million users, and in a recent fundraising exercise was rated at $8.6bn and also you can see the details of company by doing company check.
"We are going to close our waiting list and take our UK website down shortly."Over the last few months, the climate has changed a lot and we are changing with it.
"At the level of the company, we have come to recognize that our efforts are currently best spent on improving our core business in the United States and making more investments in our fundamental structures.
"While our global expansion plans are on hold for now, we will continue our work to democratize funding for all and look forward to the day when we will be able to bring this project to Britain."
Robinhood obtained approval from the Financial Conduct Authority last year to enter the UK market but missed an initial spring deadline for its launch.
Most of its British staff will now relocate to the US while a skeleton team will remain in the UK, where Wander Rutgers, a former executive of TransferWise money transfer company, will lead the business.