Which senior executive left NAGA Group, less than one year into his tenure as COO?

Where did eToro’s UK CEO leave to?

What new business line is ETX Capital branching into?

Which Retail FX broker will be a “sleeve sponsor” of which English Premier League team?

Which senior IG Group executive turned a nice profit, spreadbetting on shares of his own company?

Which longtime shareholder of Plus500 sold down its position in the company?

Answers to these questions and a whole lot more appeared first or exclusively this week at FNG. Some of the top forex industry news items to appear on the pages of FNG this past week included:

Exclusive: George Stylianou leaves NAGA Group. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that NAGA Group has seen the departure of COO George Stylianou from the company. Mr. Stylianou had been with NAGA less than a year. He joined NAGA in early 2020 to be COO, to effectively run the Limassol, Cyprus based operations of NAGA. Before he joined NAGA in Cyprus was run day-to-day by company co-founder and CEO Michael Milonas. Mr. Milonas’ other co-founder, Ben Bilski, is based in Germany. NAGA is a Hamburg, Germany based Retail FX and CFD broker, with an emphasis placed on social and copy trading.

Exclusive: eToro UK chief Iqbal Gandham departs, joins CoinBurp. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that longtime eToro UK Managing Director Iqbal Gandham has left the company, and joined fledging London-based cryptocurrency trading platform CoinBurp, as a non-executive advisor. Mr. Gandham will focus on helping London based CoinBurp supervise its continued growth strategy, and secure a planned future Series A funding round. CoinBurp calls itself a user-friendly crypto trading platform, and “the British and European way for cryptocurrency buying, selling and spending.” The CoinBurp platform launched in May 2019. Earlier this year the company crowdfunded a capital raise of £319,100 from 432 investors, on Crowdcube.

Exclusive: ETX Capital branching out into capital raising. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that ETX Capital has been branching out from its core business of Retail FX and CFD brokerage, acting as broker in a number of capital raising transactions involving small and mid cap companies. That of course is not the only change afoot at London based ETX Capital, the operating brand name of FCA regulated Monecor (London) Limited. ETX is in process of being acquired by Switzerland based fintech investor Guru Capital SA, a deal we expect to close before the end of the year. Is this a one (or two) time thing for ETX, or is investment banking going to be a mainstay for the company? We spoke with ETX Capital CEO Philip Adler, here is what he had to say.

ICM.com becomes sleeve sponsor of Newcastle United FC. And now another! Continuing a slew of forex sports sponsorships we’ve reported on over the past few weeks (see list below), London based Retail FX broker ICM.com has announced that it has inked a two-year deal to become the “sleeve sponsor” of English Premier League (EPL) team Newcastle United FC. Newcastle placed 13th in the Premier League in 2019-20. The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcasted in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

Exclusive: Head of Dealing Matt Brief makes £54K profit spreadbetting IG shares. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned via regulatory filings that longtime IG Group Head of Dealing Matt Brief has made a nice profit from a six-week spread bet in shares of his own employer. Mr. Brief, who has headed the dealing room at IG since 2001 (making him one of the longest tenured members of IG senior management), and also holds the title Chief Product Officer at IG, went long on a spread bet equivalent to 50,000 LON:IGG shares on August 7. The spreadbet was entered into at an effective purchase price of £7.35783 per IG share, for a total outlay of £367,891.50 (or about USD $468,000).

Exclusive: BlackRock sells position in Plus500 to below 5%. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that New York based money management giant BlackRock has pared its holdings in Retail FX and CFD broker Plus500 to below 5%. That marked a shift for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $6.8 trillion under management. BlackRock picked up an approximate 7% stake in Plus500 back in mid 2018, and has since remained at above a 5% holding in the company. Regulatory filings indicate that BlackRock is now under the 5% LSE reporting threshold.