Following Institutional Liquidity (ILQ)’s somewhat controversial exit from its home market in the United States, the FX broker and liquidity provider is continuing its efforts to further build its business and move forward from the situation which surrounded its exit from the US retail FX sector. Less than a month after the National Futures Association (NFA) administered a $225,000 fine to ILQ and prohibited it from operating in the US market indefinitely, the broker strives ahead. On Friday last week the broker’s websites emerged totally renewed, reflecting the corporate interest in a new beginning in overseas markets.
The two websites: “ilq.com” and “ilq.com.au”, now have the same content and design. There is no trace of ILQ’s past in the United States, as the websites show only information related to the Australian business of the broker.
Although ILQ’s presence in Australia is not new, the company having been established in the much vaunted gateway to the Asia Pacific region since July 2012, holding an AFS license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The firm’s website shows that ILQ will continue to offer trading in FX and CFDs, with the platform on the menu being the ubiquitous MetaTrader 4. The link between ILQ and traders will be performed by introducing brokers. The list of partners is impressive, including UBS, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, among others.
ILQ had announced that it would continue with its non-US operations in April 2014, when Advantage Futures took over the company’s futures accounts. Traders based in the United States were asked to close all of their open positions on ILQ’s MetaTrader 4 by April 16, 2014.
ILQ’s exit from the US market was, despite the circumstances that blighted the company at the time, accompanied by a series of similar moves by other brokers. In September 2013, Alpari chose to leave the US retail FX market and to focus on providing institutional FX business in the United States, which continues to be the world’s most advanced region for professional traders within the specialist firms located in Chicago and New York, despite the mass exodus of retail firms. In May this year FXDD followed suit, with its retail FX accounts going to FXCM, a company which holds its own in a nation which is home to just a handful of very large retail FX firms.