LeapRate has learned that Japanese web and trading giant Yahoo! Japan (TYO:4689) has launched a new Retail Forex brokerage in the UK, called Gulliver FX (interesting choice of name!). Gulliver FX is regulated by the FCA.
Yahoo Japan! is no stranger to online trading. The company – originally set up as a joint venture between Yahoo! and Japan’s Softbank – owns and operates YJFX.jp, one of Japan’s Top-Five retail FX brokerage brands doing about $200 billion per month in volumes. Yahoo! Japan is today a public company, trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market value of about $25 billion. Yahoo! itself (NASDAQ:YHOO) is worth $35 billion, with its 35% stake in Yahoo! Japan obviously an important part of its own valuation.
Gulliver FX will operate initially as an MT4 and webtrader business, and has hired some executives from rival UK firms including Japan native Shinya Takizawa, former Head of Compliance at IG Markets.
While starting small, when your parent company is worth $25 billion an initiative like receiving an FCA license and starting a new FX brand are not to be taken lightly. Yahoo! Japan and YJFX have big plans for Gulliver FX. Launching quietly earlier this year, they are about to expand marketing spend and seek a healthy share of the UK and European FX trading market.
As for the UK Retail Forex market, it continues to get more crowded. We have previously written about seeing an increasing number of EU brokers, regulated in other jurisdictions, continue to ‘passport’ their regulation to the UK, with some brokers receiving separate FCA regulation and even relocating their headquarters to London.