FX week in review: OANDA regulatory problems, broker ownership disclosure, NAGA financing
Why is OANDA facing possible expulsion from the US Retail FX sector?
When might we come to find out the beneficial owners behind all the Cyprus based FX brokers?
Who is behind a €25 million investment in social trading focused broker NAGA.com?
What license conditions did ASIC impose on CFDs broker Axi?
Where did popular FX research analyst Richard Perry land, after leaving Hantec Markets?
Answers to these questions (and a whole lot more) appeared first or exclusively on FNG over the past few days. Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear this week on FNG included:
OANDA faces possible expulsion and fines in the US. Reported First at FNG… The Business Conduct Committee of the National Futures Association (or NFA), the self-regulatory organization for the US derivatives industry, has issued a complaint against Retail FX broker OANDA Corporation. OANDA has 30 days to respond to the NFA’s complaint. Assuming that the complaint then reaches a formal proceeding, OANDA faces possible expulsion or suspension for a specified period from NFA membership, plus a monetary fine not to exceed $500,000 for each violation found. The complaint contains five such violations. OANDA is the second largest Retail FX broker in the US, holding about $195 million of client funds.
Exclusive: Ownership of Cyprus FX brokers to become public info in late 2021. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that part of the new EU directive to combat money laundering will result in the unveiling of ownership information for Cyprus based Retail FX brokers. Cyprus is home to more than 100 licensed Retail FX brokers, many of which do a good job of disguising either the ownership behind the company, or management (or both). However, Cyprus has agreed to launch a new owner registry of the thousands of private companies domiciled on the EU island nation. The new registry, to be called the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) register, will start formally collecting data next week (officially March 16).
Exclusive: FX broker NAGA Group raises €8M from PIPE investor Yorkville. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Hamburg, Germany based Retail FX and CFD broker NAGA Group AG has inked an agreement with specialist investor Yorkville Advisors, which could see NAGA raise up to €25 million (USD $30 million) in capital over the next three years. Initially, NAGA plans to draw down on an initial €8 million (USD $9.5 million) investment. The investment made by the Mountainside, New Jersey based Yorkville into NAGA will be made via convertible bonds. Effectively, Yorkville is buying NAGA shares but with the downside protection of a bond, in case NAGA’s share price declines after the investment is made. Yorkville Advisors specializes in PIPEs – private investment in public equities.
Playtech takes €221M impairment charge for Finalto as sale looms. Online gaming and financial services provider Playtech plc (LON:PTEC) announced its full year 2020 financial results this morning, which included an update on the company’s Financials division, now known as Finalto. Finalto comprises the acquired CFH Group and Alpha Capital Markets forex B2B services businesses, and the Retail FX brokerage brand Markets.com. It rebranded the division from TradeTech Group to Finalto in late 2020. First, to the results. As we reported back in January, Finalto had a much more challenging second half of the year in 2020. Finalto’s revenues of €87.3 million in H1 2020 declined by 60% to €34.6 million (USD $41.3 million) in H2 2020.
Axi gets license conditions imposed by ASIC. After we reported exclusively last week that Australian financial regulator ASIC was finally dropping its year-long attempt to suspend the AFS license of Retail FX and CFDs broker AxiCorp, ASIC has now announced that it is now imposing additional license conditions on the retail OTC derivatives issuer. AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd operates the Axi.com brand, which recently rebranded from AxiTrader. ASIC said that it has now imposed additional conditions on the Australian financial services (AFS) license of Axi to ensure that the company has adequate compliance arrangements in place for its over the counter (OTC) derivatives business.
Among the top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week were:
❑ Exclusive: FX analyst Richard Perry joins Infinox.
❑ ICM.com names Joanne Tayara as Director of its Dubai Office.
❑ Interactive Brokers CEO Milan Galik earns $10.1M in 2020.
❑ Saxo Bank elects Kari Stadigh as Chairman.
❑ CMC Markets CFO and Deputy CEO acquire shares under incentive plan.
❑ TP ICAP adds longtime Thomson Reuters exec Andrew Cockburn for Japan sales.