How much did ABN Amro pay to buy neobroker BUX?

Which commercial bank is being acquired by XM.com co-founder and CEO Costas Cleanthous?

Who is INFNOX’s new CEO?

What are the latest results from a variety of FX and CFDs industry players including Plus500, GCEX, XTB, Dukascopy, and Robinhood?

Which FCA licensed CFDs broker just had its business restricted by the UK financial regulator? And why?

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

Top FX and CFDs industry news stories this week

Exclusive: ABN Amro paid €68 million to acquire neobroker BUX. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned from certain sources that Dutch banking giant ABN Amro paid €68 million (USD $77 million), in cash, to acquire Amsterdam based neobroker BUX last year. The parties had not yet formally released the terms of the transaction to date. Most of the investors in BUX (which included ABN Amro itself) apparently took a loss on the deal.

XM.com CEO Costas Cleanthous acquiring control of Cyprus bank Ancoria. News sources in Cyprus led by InBusinessNews and Cyprus Business News are reporting that Costas Cleanthous, the co-founder and CEO of Retail FX and CFDs broker XM.com, is acquiring a majority stake in Accoria Bank, one of Cyprus largest banks. Cyprus’ banking sector has been undergoing consolidation, with Eurobank in process of acquiring Hellenic Bank. Earlier this year Alpha Bank Cyprus agreed to buy AstroBank in a €205 million deal.

FCA restricts Direct Trading Technologies. UK financial regulator The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is restricting Direct Trading Technologies UK Ltd (or for short, DTT) from carrying out regulated activities, preventing it from carrying on any regulated activities and restricting access to its assets. The regulator said that it identified that DTT is failing, or is likely to fail, to meet the standards required of an authorised firm.

Institutional FX trading volumes soar 13% in April 2025 thanks to currency volatility. Wild volatility in the currency markets (and the financial markets as a whole) following the introduction of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade tariffs on April 2 “Liberation Day” has led to one of the most active months ever in institutional FX trading.

Broker results

FX and CFDs industry broker results released this past week include:

• XTB sees record Revenues of $155M but flat Profit in Q1 2025.
• Dukascopy sees Revenues and Profit improve in 2H 2024.
• GCEX sees Revenues up 64% in 2024 to £3.8M driven by Crypto CFDs trading.
• Robinhood Revenues fall 9% QoQ in Q1 2025.
• Plus500 registers 13% Q/Q rise and 5% Y/Y drop in revenues in Q1 2025.
• CFDs broker Acetop sees Revenues up 22% in 2024 led by Spot Gold trading.

Top FX industry executive moves this week

❑ INFINOX Capital appoints Lee Holmes as CEO.

❑ Exclusive: Zarvista BizDev head Christiana Lazaridou joins EC Markets.

❑ Exclusive: Exness hires Dzhamel Mimun as MENA Regional Manager.

❑ United Fintech hires Virgin Media O2 exec Deepak Nair as COO.

❑ Exclusive: Michael Going joins APM Capital (ex BUX UK).

❑ Exclusive: Former ADSS / Saxo exec Jamieson Blake launches Level 26.

❑ Exclusive: Alex Praill named Head of Payment Services at CMC Markets.

❑ Traders Trust COO Todor Georgiev leaves to launch prop trading firm Funded7.

❑ Fred Pedersen (re)joins Your Bourse as CGO.

❑ Crossover Markets hires AFX / Euronext FX alum Kevin Wolf as CFO.

❑ IG alum Alex Ratford joins Crypto.com as Partnerships head.