Forex industry news at LeapRate this past week was dominated by regulatory moves, broker results, and news involving China (some good, some bad).
Our most popular guest posts covered the pros and cons of fully integrated forex broker platform solutions, How easy is it to become a Prime of Prime, and Google bans Payday Loan ads – should Brokers be worried?
Some of the most popular, shared and commented-on posts this past week on LeapRate included:
SEC bans Broker-Dealers from retail forex transactions. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that the US Securities and Futures Commission (SEC) has quietly filed a notice indicating that as of July 31, broker-dealers will no longer be able to engage in leveraged foreign exchange transactions with retail traders. The ban includes those brokers-dealers which are dually registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as Future Commission Merchants (FCMs). So what does this mean for the ‘FCM-only’ brokers in the US, such as FXCM, Forex.com and Oanda? And might the effective regulators of the retail forex brokers, namely the CFTC and NFA, follow suit and ban retail forex transactions?
Chinese hackers blackmailing MT4 brokers with DDoS attacks. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that a number of both large and small Retail Forex brokers running MT4 have been the subject of successful DDoS attacks originating out of China. The hackers have been able to create high levels of false traffic on the MT4 servers being run by the brokers, causing service disruptions and slowing down the performance of the servers for real clients of these brokers when they log in and attempt to trade. And in some cases, getting the servers temporarily taken offline. So how are the hackers looking to profit from all this?
Saxo Bank lands white label agreement with Chinese P2P lending giant Lufax. Retail forex broker Saxo Bank has announced a new white label partnership with Lufax, China’s largest internet finance company, active in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending business. The agreement with Lufax marks Saxo Bank’s second major agreement with a Chinese company in just the past few weeks. So who is Lufax? (Hint: They’re less than five years old, but in their last financing round Lufax was valued at about $19 billion.)
ADS Securities UK 2015 net loss balloons to £5.5 million. ADS Securities London Limited, the FCA regulated London-based subsidiary of United Arab Emirates forex and bullion trading brokerage ADS Holdings LLC, reported its 2015 financial results indicating significant growth in the business, but also a large net loss for the year. The parent company in the UAE continues to pour a lot of cash into its UK subsidiary, more than £13.3 million ($19 million) since the beginning of 2014. More details including a formal statement from ADS management, exclusively at LeapRate.
Valutrades grows revenues in 2015 but continues to lose money. FCA regulated retail forex broker Valutrades Limited has filed its 2015 financial statements, indicating that the company’s business grew nicely during the year, and the company lost less money than the previous year. Valutrades is the FCA regulated arm of Indonesia-based Monex Investindo Futures, controlled by Indonesian entrepreneur Anil Bahirwani. (Monex Indonesia is not to be confused with Japanese retail forex broker Monex, the two companies while sharing a common name and a common business are not related). Valutrades also has gone through a turnover in senior management over the past few months.
TechFinancials sees revenues drop 15% in 2H-2015 as it faces a CySEC AML fine. Binary platform provider and operator TechFinancials reported its 2015 financials today, indicating a fairly slow second half of the year amid tough conditions for regulated binary options brokers. TechFinancials also disclosed that it is likely to receive an Anti-Money Laundering fine from CySEC, and faces the remote possibility of withdrawal or suspension of its CIF license.