UK financial regulator The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is restricting Direct Trading Technologies UK Ltd (or for short, DTT) from carrying out regulated activities, preventing it from carrying on any regulated activities and restricting access to its assets.

The regulator said that it identified that DTT is failing, or is likely to fail, to meet the standards required of an authorised firm.

Due to the restrictions put in place, the firm is required to ensure that all open trading positions have been closed and investor money is set aside for customers. The firm can no longer offer regulated services, including trading.

Direct Trading Technologies UK Ltd is the UK arm of Global DTT, an Arabic language market focused Retail FX and CFDs broker, based mainly out of Lebanon and Dubai. The company holds licenses in the UAE, Lithuania, Vanuatu, and Panama, and in 2018 received an FCA license in the UK for Direct Trading Technologies UK Limited, from where it mainly serves professional clients. DTT is jointly controlled by its longtime CEO Walid Ead and by Saudi based investor Khalid Al Makkawi.

Key concerns identified at DTT

Lack of systems and controls to prevent financial crime. In particular, DTT’s systems and controls were not adequate to detect or prevent a member of staff from allegedly falsifying documents for the firm’s audit.

Poor governance and oversight. DTT appears to not have effective processes to identify, manage, monitor and report the risks it is or might be exposed to, or adequate internal control mechanisms, including sound administrative and accounting procedures.

Failure to cooperate. DTT has not been open and cooperative with the FCA and has failed to ensure that information was appropriately disclosed. In addition, information provided to the firm’s auditor appears to be inconsistent with information separately provided by the firm to the FCA.

FCA First Supervisory Notice

The FCA has issued a First Supervisory Notice which explains the reasons it took action against DTT. Some excerpts from the First Supervisory Notice include:

On 7 January 2025, the Authority received a notification from the Auditors… that during their recent audit of the Firm’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023, the Firm had provided the Auditors with documentation which the Auditors reasonably believed to have been fabricated.

Given the nature of the Firm’s matched principal broker trading model, the Authority considers that the Firm does not have robust governance arrangements to ensure that those with management responsibility had effective oversight of its business.

The Authority has serious concerns that the arrangements the Firm has put in place to address the accounting irregularities identified during the audit, have resulted in a substantial shortfall within the Firm’s client money account…

The Firm appears to have an inadequate financial crime framework… the Firm’s recent audit has found material deficiencies in the Firm’s financial crime control processes which led to an employee of the Firm allegedly falsifying a document used to support a substantial payment.

The FCA’s restrictions imposed on DTT have removed the firm’s ability to conduct regulatory business, and prevent it from reducing the value of its assets without our consent. The full First Supervisory Notice issued by the FCA regarding DTT can be accessed here (pdf).