Exclusive: Eleni Siouti named to head new FXCM Cyprus operation
FNG Exclusive… Further to our earlier exclusive report that global retail FX broker FXCM had set up a new subsidiary in Cyprus and applied for (and received) a CySEC CIF license, FNG has now learned that the operation on the island EU nation will be headed by Eleni Siouti.
Eleni Siouti is a longtime FXCM executive, based in Athens, Greece. She has been with FXCM since 2009, and has worked for the company in both her native Greece and in South Africa. For the past two years she has been FXCM’s representative in Greece, a role she will continue in addition to being named as CEO of the newly CySEC licensed FXCM EU Ltd.
Until now FXCM has been servicing EU based clients out of FCA licensed FXCM UK in London. However that will end when the calendar turns to 2021, marking the end of the Brexit transitional phase for financial institutions utilizing the EU-UK license passport. The company actually set up FXCM EU Ltd in Cyprus in late 2019, and spent the better part of 2020 in an application process for a CIF license from Cypriot regulator CySEC.
FXCM has also set up a number of EU client destination websites to be operated by FXCM EU, namely fxcm.com/eu, fxcm.com/fr, fxcm.com/it, fxcm.com/gr, and fxcm.com/es.
We had also earlier reported that FXCM’s longtime US rival FOREX.com, now owned by StoneX, is also in process of applying for a CySEC license. In StoneX’s latest 10-K disclosure it stated that the CIF “license application is currently under consideration by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.”
FXCM is controlled by US investment bank Jefferies Financial. Other than Cyprus, the company has licensed subsidiaries in the UK, Australia, and South Africa.