An early casualty of the extremely high volatility which occurred in the currency markets on January 15 this year was New Zealand based FX brokerage Excel Markets, which ceased to operate on January 16, just one day after the Swiss National Bank removed the 1.20 peg on the EURCHF.
At the time, LeapRate reported that despite the cessation of business, client funds at Excel Markets remain unaffected, as the firm has ensured that these are protected.
Today, Excel Markets has issued a trading update, further clarifying the company’s position, as follows:
As of Thursday, 22 Jan 2015 100% of pending withdrawal requests were processed amounting to 93% of the $1.954M in client equity held by Global Brokers NZ Ltd (GBL). As of today, 27 Jan 2015, 96% of client funds have been sent back to clients and the remainder await withdrawal requests. The Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand has worked closely with GBL since the incident to ensure client funds were being safely returned.
Excel is backed by founders of Cash Back Forex (https://www.cashbackforex.com), one of the largest introducers of retail forex accounts globally holding over 49,000 live accounts. This has allowed operations to continue in overdrive to return client funds before winding down operations.
We would like to let Excel clients know you have been heard. Hundreds of communications have lamented the closure and urged that Excel seek a remedy to reopen. Numerous reopening options are being carefully considered.