The past week was very much one of change in the FX and CFDs industry, with some longtime relationships ending, a longtime brand changing, and quite a number of old (and new) faces in different places.

What led Plus500 to buy out one of its oldest and largest outside shareholders to the tune of more than £100 million?

Where did ActivTrades divert more than £30 million in capital?

What did Invast Global rebrand as?

Which broker did former OANDA and Alpari CEO Daniel Skowronski join? And in what capacity?

Some of the most read and commented-on FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:

Exclusive: ActivTrades revenues decline 43% in 2H-2022 as resources diverted to StreamBank. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned via regulatory filings that London based Retail FX and CFDs broker ActivTrades saw a sharp decline in activity during the second half of 2022, following what was a very strong first half of the year. The decline came as ActivTrades diverted a significant amount of capital and resources into StreamBank, a new online lender and savings bank in the UK being launched by ActivTrades’ controlling shareholder Alex Pusco.

Invast rebrands as 26 Degrees amid cash outflows, falling share price. Australia based institutional brokerage Invast Global has announced a major rebrand, with the company now calling itself 26 Degrees Global Markets. The changes at Invast / 26 Degrees come as the company has reported a decrease in profitability and cash outflows. Parent INV Inc’s share price recently fell to a 52-week low. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 INV reported operating cash outflows of minus ¥976 million (USD $7.0 million), and the company’s cash balances dropped by 28% from 2022 levels.

Plus500 repurchases £101M (8.2%) of its shares from Odey. Retail FX and CFDs broker Plus500 has announced that the company has purchased 7,327,605 of its own shares from Odey Asset Management LLP. The shares represent approximately 8.2% of Plus500’s issued share capital (excluding shares already held in treasury). The buyout announcement comes just two days after Odey founder and controlling shareholder Crispin Odey was removed from his own company by Odey’s executive committee, following a Financial Times report that 13 women had accused Odey of sexual misconduct over a 25 year period.

Freetrade raising funds via crowdfunding round @ £225M valuation. UK newspaper The Telegraph is reporting that online neobroker Freetrade is about to launch a crowdfunding round, to help shore up the company’s finances. While not stating yet how much it will raise – a Crowdcube page shows an early access page which Freetrade says will go live on June 19 – The Telegraph stated that the planned valuation for the raise is £225 million, or about 65% below Freetrade’s previous valuation of £650 million when it raised capital in late 2021 and again in mid 2022.

Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:

❑ Daniel Skowronski joins Admirals as Chief Revenue Officer.

❑ Exclusive: Libertex promotes Andrew Nikolaev to COO.

❑ Exclusive: Sofia Mashovets joins Praxis as Head of Marketing.

❑ Exclusive: Lawrence Jones (re)joins Pepperstone to head Digital Acquisition.

❑ Exclusive: Wintrado marketing head Teodora Pavlova moves to FastBull.

❑ Exclusive: Capital.com adds Finance and Compliance expert Philip Anderson to its Board.

❑ Exclusive: FXall / Refinitiv alum Mike Bartelli joins Integral as Liquidity Manager Americas.

❑ GTC Group hires Alpari/NAGA/FXTM alum Jameel Ahmad as Chief Analyst.

❑ Muinmos adds Mohamed Mortada as Sales Manager, Jesus Sanchez as Senior Product Manager.

❑ Tools for Brokers taps Han Ong to head its Singapore office