FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that London based Retail FX and CFDs broker London Capital Group Ltd (or LCG, at website lcg.com) has restarted normal operations, after last month halting all onboarding of new clients, although existing clients were free to continue opening positions with LCG’s partner firms.

The halt in operations at LCG, alongside some restrictions in its FCA license, occurred in the aftermath of the forced bankruptcy of the company’s parent FlowBank in Switzerland.

We understand that on the day FlowBank entered administration (i.e. June 13), LCG’s managers Dave Worsfold and Matt Basi (who were caught by surprise by what happened at FlowBank) spoke to the FCA, who asked LCG to evidence its solvency position given events at the parent company. LCG itself requested that temporary restrictions be put on its license while the company hired third party experts to confirm its position.

That being now complete, and with the FCA satisfied that LCG is a standalone, solvent business, LCG management requested that all restrictions be lifted on July 8, which was granted by the FCA. Consequently, LCG is back to business-as-usual, under the company’s new Introducing Broker business model.

We would also note that the UK based, FCA regulated LCG business (referred to in this article) is unrelated to the offshore, Bahamas based LCG business other than the common ownership by FlowBank. There is no operational, financial, or business link between the two companies. To the best of our knowledge, LCG Bahamas which also uses the lcg.com website url but outside of the UK, has halted to operate, as (unlike LCG in the UK) it was managed directly by FlowBank, also using the brand FlowBroker.

FNG spoke with LCG Managing Director Matt Basi, who said,

“Dave and I consider the past month proof of concept for the decision we made in 2023 to pivot away from the dealing in principal model, to become an IB. We’ve reduced the company’s cost base by 80%+ and recently turned cashflow positive for the first time in LCG’s recent history.

“Throughout this period we’ve been loyally supported by our team, clients and partners – we had a record turnover month in June, turning over in excess of £3bn in notional trade volume. We’re on track to exceed that in July.

“We have ambitious plans for the future of LCG. I can’t talk at this stage about the specifics of those plans or any prospective change in control – any purchase of the equity from the administrators would require the prior approval of the FCA. We’re very excited about what the future holds – we’ll be in touch when we can say more on that.”