This week’s FX industry news was highlighted by details emerging (after 18 months) from the bankruptcy of Australia based Retail FX broker USGFX. The quite amazing story of USGFX includes private investigators, overpaid taxes, sham payment companies, an AWOL controlling shareholder – and more than $350 million in missing client funds! And it was all reported first at FNG.

While some brokers reporting updated financial figures saw their shares rise this week, such as IG Group and CMC, others were moving in the other direction. What led to a 13% decline in NAGA.com shares, and a 30% from-the-peak fall in shares of Swissquote? We explain…

There was also the launch of a new Retail FX venture by former Spotware (i.e. cTrader) bus dev head Alex Geralis, the hiring of his replacement at Spotware (from T4B), and more senior management departures at OANDA – all reported exclusively at FNG.

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

USGFX bankruptcy update: $357M in claims, just $8M in funds. The administrators for bankrupt Retail FX broker Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd, which operated the USGFX.com brand in Australia, have issued what amounts to the first real update on their efforts to recover funds for former clients and creditors of USGFX since September 2020. USGFX went bankrupt in mid 2020, its controlling shareholder Soe Hein Minn went missing, and administrators have been left trying to sort things out while clients and creditors have been waiting. How much money is missing? What comes next for USGFX clients and creditors?

Retail FX broker share prices tumble – NAGA down 13%, Swissquote off 6%… Stock markets continued to hammer the share prices of some Retail FX and CFD brokers on Monday. Two of 2021’s market darlings among public traded Retail FX brokers – Swissquote and NAGA.com – have performed the worst among their peer group year-to-date in 2022, with today being no exception. As of the time of writing early afternoon GMT time, shares of Hamburg based NAGA Group AG, which operates the CySEC-licensed NAGA.com brand, were trading down by more than 13% to €5.16, marking a multi-month low for the stock. NAGA shares are now down 33% in 2022 after rising 89% in all of 2021, and sit 44% below their 52-week (and all-time) high of €9.30 hit late last year.

Exclusive: Alexander Geralis leaves Spotware to launch FX broker services firm Finthentic. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that longtime Spotware Systems business development head Alexander Geralis has left the company, to launch his own FX brokerage advisory and services firm called Finthentic. With Finthentic, Mr. Geralis plans to help budding entrepreneurs in Retail FX to launch their own FX/CFD brokerage business, as well as work with existing brokers in dealing with technology and service issues from existing providers. Finthentic plans to offer a turnkey start-your-own-brokerage package for new entrants, as well as a broker management package including services such as a 24/7 Outsourced Dealing Room.

Playtech looking at company breakup if Aristocrat sale fails. UK news source Sky News has reported that online gaming tech and financial services firm Playtech plc (LON:PTEC) is working with its legal and financial advisors on a “Plan B” to break up the company, should its planned £2.1 billion sale to Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) fall through. Playtech shareholders are scheduled to vote on Aristocrat’s 680p-per-share, all-cash bid to buy Playtech a week from today, on February 2. However according to Sky News, Playtech directors are concerned that a group of Far East investors have accumulated about 25% of Playtech’s float, and could vote together to effectively block the sale.

Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:

❑ Exclusive: More OANDA management departures – Heads of Retail Sales, PR.

❑ Capital.com hires Markets.com exec Joe Rundle as Chief of Staff.

❑ Exclusive: Spotware hires T4B exec Andreas Masouras for Bus Dev, replacing Alex Geralis.

❑ Christopher Gore becomes director of Australian business of CLSA Premium.

❑ Michael Nichols joins Match-Trade as Head of Sales.

❑ Acuity Trading hires Jack Lawrence to focus on institutional traders.