FX week in review: Anti-PFOF ads, eToro results, GMI management, Playtech shareholder vote

Gerald Segal 0 Comments December 26, 2021

It was a holiday shortened week as we head into the end-of-year break, but there was still plenty of Forex Industry News to report.

Which online broker is running anti payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) ads, as pushback against the commission-free neo-brokers like Robinhood?

How did eToro’s preliminary Q4 results look, after a weak Q3?

What changes did FCA regulated institutional broker GMI-UK make to its top management ranks?

What changes is Playtech making to its scheduled January 12 shareholder vote to approve the 680p-per-share sale of the company to Aristocrat Leisure Ltd?

Answers to these questions. and a whole lot more, appeared first or exclusively this past week at FNG. Some of the most read and commented-on FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:

Interactive Brokers running anti-PFOF TV ads. US based online broker Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR) has been running a series of television ads, touting its lack of use of payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) in handling client orders. The ads seem to be a response to Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), which burst onto the scene in recent years and has taken a lot of business away from “traditional” online brokers with its commission-free trading model. Robinhood can offer commission-free trading, of course, because it makes its money (primarily) from selling client orders to third party market making firms – or payment-for-order-flow. The market makers trade with the orders by taking the other side of the trade, thus establishing an execution price.

Exclusive: eToro Revenues up 30% QoQ in Q4 to $290M range. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned via regulatory filings made by eToro’s SPAC merger partner FinTech Acquisition Corp. V (NASDAQ:FTCV), that eToro expects a significant improvement in financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021, which still has about a week to go. The filing states that eToro expects Revenues (what it calls “Total commissions”) of between $285 million and $295 million for Q4-2021, about 30% higher as compared to $222 million in Q3 2021. The $285-$290 million figure, however, is still well below the $350-$360 million Revenue range that the Retail FX broker reported for each of the first two quarters of 2021.

Playtech makes changes to Jan 12 shareholder vote due to Omicron. Online gaming tech and financial services company Playtech plc (LON:PTEC) has announced that it is making some procedural changes to its planned shareholder meeting and scheduled for January 12, 2022, due to expected restrictions on travel and public gatherings in the UK. The increased spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant has led to record new infection reports in the UK in recent days, and a host of EU countries have upped travel restrictions to and from the UK. The January 12 shareholder vote is set to approve the 680p-per-share all cash bid for Playtech made by Australia gaming concern Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL), valuing Playtech at £2.1 billion.

TP ICAP adds Jane Street and Virtu as liquidity providers for crypto platform. Markets infrastructure and data solutions provider TP ICAP (LON:TCAP) has announced that leading liquidity providers Jane Street and Virtu Financial have committed to supporting the upcoming launch of the TP ICAP Digital Assets Spot Platform. The addition of the market makers will help provide the platform with the tight pricing that clients expect and from brands they recognize and trust. TP ICAP’s new Digital Assets Platform, which remains subject to registration with the UK Financial Conduct Authority, will feature a wholesale electronic Over The Counter (OTC) marketplace for spot crypto asset trading, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.