What did Australia regulator ASIC have to say about Binary Options, before banning them? (… fresh off their implementation of new CFD trading rules which took effect this past week).

Which Retail FX broker did FinanceFeeds founder and longtime FX industry writer Andrew Saks join? And, in what capacity?

Why was CySEC-licensed Retail FX and CFDs broker Alvexo fined €100,000?

What acquisitions did OANDA, and popular FX industry regulatory consultant MAP S.Platis, close on this week?

Answers to these questions and lots more appeared first or exclusively this week at FNG. Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear this week on FNG included:

ASIC bans Binary Options for retail traders in Australia. Reported First at FNG… Australia financial regulator ASIC has taken another step to pull closer to its European counterparts, in terms of what it allows to be offered to retail traders. Until recently Australia was the last “properly regulated” nation that still allowed retail traders of forex and CFDs to use near-unlimited leverage, but that was nixed as of the beginning of this week, when new CFD broker rules came into effect limiting leverage to 30x for major forex pairs – and even lower for other instruments. That effectively matched rules put into effect in the UK and EU in August 2018. And now, ASIC has added in a ban on selling Binary Options to retail traders.

Exclusive: Andrew Saks joins ETX Capital as Head of Research and Analysis. FNG Exclusive… Andrew Saks has joined FCA-regulated CFD broker ETX Capital as Head of Research and Analysis. The appointment of Mr Saks, who will be based in London, is effective today, April 1, 2021. Mr Saks is an experienced and prominent industry professional with 30 years of experience within the High Technology Sector, with emphasis on financial technology. He joins ETX Capital after more than five years at the helm of Forex and fintech news website FinanceFeeds, which was recently sold. Prior to that, he was managing editor at Leaprate. Between December 2012 and March 2014, Mr Saks was an editor at Forex Magnates (now, Finance Magnates).

Alvexo parent VPR fined €100K for CFD marketing violations. Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has announced a €100,000 settlement with VPR Safe Financial Group Ltd, which operates the Alvexo retail forex and CFD brokerage brand. Alvexo is an Italy and France focused Retail FX broker, run from Cyprus by Israeli CEO Yael Kleinman. CySEC, under article 37(4) of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission Law of 2009, has the power to reach a settlement for any violation or possible violation, act or omission for which there is reasonable ground to believe that it took place in violation of the provisions of CySEC’s supervised legislation.

OANDA finalizes acquisition of Polish brokerage TMS Brokers. Provider of online multi-asset trading services, currency data and analytics, OANDA Global Corporation has completed its acquisition of Dom Maklerski TMS Brokers SA. As FX News Group has reported, the deal was approved by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority earlier this month. The TMS acquisition represents OANDA’s second investment in Poland in the last year. In early 2020, the firm established a shared services centre in Kraków that currently employs almost 100 people. The oldest multi-asset broker in Poland, TMS enables clients to invest in the global financial markets, providing access to thousands of products including currencies, indices, commodities, equities, cryptocurrencies and exchange-traded funds from the world’s major exchanges.

MAP S.Platis acquires integrator Microstorm. Leading Cyprus regulatory consulting firm MAP S.Platis has announced the acquisition of Nicosia based Microstorm Limited. Microstorm, a leading information technology (IT) firm based in Cyprus with more than 30 years’ experience, has been delivering solutions in the areas of IT support, networking, security, infrastructure, cybersecurity, IT governance, software development and Microsoft O365. Microstorm, as part of the MAP S.Platis Group, is now able to offer a wider spectrum of IT services to cover its clients’ specialised needs.

Among the top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week were:

❑ Broadway taps Refinitiv exec Michael Chin as its new CEO.

❑ John Stier to step down as Equiniti CFO.

❑ LSEG appoints Sabrina Bailey to run its Wealth Solutions business.

❑ Anneli Tuominen named interim Chair of ESMA.

❑ Andy Kollegger set to join Board of Directors of SIX.