FNG Exclusive… Following up on our article from the weekend that broke the story about how Apple had banned the popular MT4 and MT5 trading apps from its App Store, FNG has learned that MetaQuotes – which makes the MetaTrader family of apps including both MT4 and MT5 – has been in touch with several of its broker clients and technology partners on the matter.

According to several senior sources in the Retail FX and CFDs brokerage sector, MetaQuotes has been quietly letting their clients know that the issue with Apple is indeed fixable, and that it is working on restoring both MT4 and MT5 on the Apple App Store “as soon as possible”.

In the meantime, FNG has learned that MetaQuotes sent out messages today to a number of its technology partners and brokerage clients stating that its White Label product is currently not available in the company’s own Support Site App Store. MetaQuotes said that no new White Labels will be processed “until further notice”.

MT4 and MT5 have a more than 50% market share in the online trading sector, with the vast majority of leading CFD brokers, as well as many smaller brokers, offering one or both platforms, sometimes alongside proprietary platforms or other third party solutions.

An entire industry has been built up around MT4 and MT5, from dedicated hosting of MT4/MT5 servers to liquidity bridges, CRM solutions, and broker add-on applications. The various MT4/MT5 White Label solutions allow brokers running other platforms, or new startups, to “white label” MT4 and MT5 as their own branded trading platform without having to purchase an MT4 or MT5 server license, or running other aspects of the business such as hosting, connection to liquidity providers, and CRM.

Why did Apple remove MT4 and MT5 from the App Store?

Much of the online discussion over the past few days as to the reason(s) for Apple to unilaterally remove MT4 and MT5 from its App Store has centered on a possible connection to Russia. (Neither Apple nor MetaQuotes has made an official statement on the matter). However given what is being told to certain brokerage clients of MetaQuotes, we don’t believe that this is correct. MetaQuotes has been based and run out of Cyprus for about 20 years. While its founders were originally from Russia they have been resident in Cyprus, an EU country, for all that time, as has the company itself.

As we wrote in our article on the matter over the weekend (see link above), we believe that the “real” reason lies with how MetaTrader has been used by certain people and entities unconnected to MetaQuotes. Our article quoted Forbes senior tech writer Cyrus Farivar who ran a post earlier this month entitled How One Man Lost $1 Million To A Crypto ‘Super Scam’ Called Pig Butchering, covering a scam where the scammers got retail traders to download MetaTrader as part of the scam.

While MetaQuotes itself was obviously not at all involved in the scam, the Forbes article quotes Apple spokesperson Adam Dema who told Forbes that “the company is investigating complaints about MetaTrader, and will take additional action to protect App Store users if necessary.”

Some further digging by FNG has revealed that MetaTrader was actually not at all used in the aforementioned scam (perpetrated at some crypto trading firms). Apparently, however, Apple still wants how MetaQuotes oversees who can use MT4/MT5, for what purposes, and with which add-on applications, to change, before restoring MT4 and MT5 to its App Store. The behind-the-scenes discussions between Apple and MetaQuotes are likely centered on those new “terms”, with MetaQuotes being expected to take a more active role in overseeing how its apps are used, and by whom, before MT4 and MT5 can be restored to the Apple App Store.

We would like to reiterate that our conclusions are based on our observations and conversations with certain people in “the industry” but without confirmation from either Apple or MetaQuotes, which both continue to be silent on the subject.

We will continue to cover this story as it unfolds.