FX week in review: EverFX phased out, broker-platform partnerships, Turbos regulation
What brand does CySEC-licensed ICC Intercertus plan to replace EverFX with?
What new partnerships were signed in the FX trading and platform world this week?
How did ESMA respond to the Dutch AFM’s plans to limit the sale of Turbos to retail clients?
How much money did Trading 212 raise, from whom, and why?
Which senior FX industry executives moved firms over the past few days?
Answers to these questions and a whole lot more appeared first or exclusively at FNG this week. Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:
Exclusive: ICC Intercertus onboards new CEO, new brand Axiance, phasing out EverFX. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Cyprus based, CySEC-licensed Retail FX and CFDs brokerage group ICC Intercertus Capital Ltd is making some major changes, including a new CEO from outside the FX industry, the launch of a new brand and strategy, alongside the phasing out of its current main brand. First, to the management change. ICC has brought on former Deloitte partner Panikos Teklos as CEO. Mr. Teklos joined Deloitte in 2016 and was named a Partner in 2018. His focus at Deloitte was on providing risk advisory services to investment funds, investment companies, banks and other organizations, as well as heading wealth advisory services for institutional and private clients in Cyprus. He has also worked at Citi, Barclays Capital, and BNP Paribas.
ESMA supports Dutch AFM move to restrict Turbos for retail traders. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has issued an opinion on product intervention measures communicated by The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) for Turbos. Turbos are high-risk leveraged products with which investors speculate that the prices of the underlying asset, such as a share, an index or a currency, will rise or fall. They are popular with retail traders in certain jurisdictions in Europe. such as The Netherlands and Germany. The sale of CFDs is already subject to restrictions that decrease the risks for retail investors. As we reported back in December, the restrictions proposed by the AFM for Turbos are similar to those applying to the sale of CFDs.
FXCM Pro partners with Fortex on multi-asset trading platform. Leading online FX and CFDs trading firm FXCM has announced that its FXCM Pro unit, the institutional arm of the business, is partnering with Fortex, a leading multi-asset trading technology platform. The partnership between FXCM Pro and Fortex integrates FXCM Pro’s liquidity with Fortex’s XForce 2.0 platform. XForce 2.0 is a multi-asset trading platform that packs liquidity aggregation, order and risk management, MT4/5 Bridges, FIX API, hosting, and multiple trading GUI into one valued cloud native SaaS offering in NY4/LD4/HK1. FXCM Pro said that it will combine its world leading multi-asset trading technology solution with Fortex’s market leading service, providing institutions and professional traders with a first-class trading experience and access to key industry platforms.
PrimeXM adds Synthetic Pricing feature on the XCore Portal. Forex broker technology and MT4/MT5 integration specialist PrimeXM has announced that in response to popular demand from its clients, the company has released a new XCore feature – Synthetic Pricing. This new feature has been released in the latest XCore Portal version 2.47. PrimeXM said that the new Synthetic Pricing feature provides brokers the flexibility to offer unique trading products to their clients, at the same time increasing a broker’s product range. Through the Synthetic Symbol Editor Wizard, brokers running XCore can easily create distinctive symbols by converting or combining existing symbols.
Exclusive: Trading 212 gets £6 million capital injection from shareholders. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned from company sources that FCA regulated online brokerage firm Trading 212 UK Limited has raised an additional £6.0 million (USD $8.5 million) of capital. The investment was made by Trading 212 controlling shareholders Borislav Nedialkov and Ivan Ashminov. We understand that the investment was made, bringing Trading 212’s base capital up from £4.8 million to £10.8 million, to help support the growth of the business both current and expected in the future. Like a number of its online brokerage counterparts, Trading 212 has seen a sharp uptick in all metrics over the past year covering everything from number of clients to client assets held to trading volumes.
Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:
❑ Exclusive: Peter Leonidou leaves LMAX for Exclusive Capital.
❑ Exclusive: Swissquote institutional FX exec Felix Cloke leaves to MKS.
❑ Exclusive: FX research analyst Ahmed Negm leaves Orbex for FBS.
❑ Mark J. Hawkins joins FIS BoD.
❑ smartTrade names Colin Murphy its Chief Revenue Officer.