FNG Exclusive… Following a fairly successful first full year of operation in 2019, FNG has learned via regulatory filings that FCA licensed Retail FX, CFDs and spread betting broker Acetop Financial Limited saw a significant decline in activity in 2020, even as the online trading world was seeing record trading volumes overall.

Acetop brought in just £711,000 in Revenue in 2020, down 62% from £1.87 million in 2019. The company reported a loss of £510,000 in 2020 versus a modest profit of £87,000 the previous year. In 2018 Acetop recorded just £18,000 in Revenue and posted a net loss of £1.66 million, as it geared up for taking on clients in 2019. The company held total assets of £3.4 million at year-end 2020, down from £4.o million in 2019.

Acetop’s main revenue for 2020 was from its trading side, and the provision of liquidity to its professional and corporate clients. Total notional trading volumes for 2020 stood at to $5.1 billion (actually up from 2019 at $4.6 billion), with a focus on Spot Gold, FX and indices. The majority of flow was driven through Acetop’s outsourced liquidity, which was principally matched with the company’s institutional partners.

Acetop Financial was incorporated in early 2016, and received its FCA license in September 2017. The company’s parent Acetop International Financial Group Limited is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The company is controlled by Chinese national Wing Suen Lau, now resident in Hong Kong.

The company was set up with £5 million in capital in 2016, but losses in 2017 and 2018 during setup (and now in 2020) ate into about two thirds of that amount. However, Acetop remained very well capitalized as at the end of 2020 with more than £1.65 million in shareholders’ equity.

Acetop UK is run by CEO Mark Gemma, who was formerly with XTrade and Henyep Group. The company offers trading on the MT4 platform. The UK company had 10 staff as at year end 2020, down from 18 staff in 2019.

Acetop made the commitment of a 5-year London office lease in May 2020, at a cost of £45,000 annually. With the culmination of Brexit at the end of 2020, the UK office will continue to serve clients of the UK and the rest of the world, whilst the decision to open a European base to serve EU clients is something that the company said will be decided in the future.