Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 29th June and 3rd of July on LeapRate.
Forex and CFD online trading platform Skilling announced the integration and launch of MetaTrader 4 (MT4). Founded in 2016, Skilling introduced their proprietary trading platform in 2018, and in January 2020 they announced the launch of the industry’s first seamless integration with Spotware’s cTrader. With their acquisition of FSA Seychelles license earlier this year, Skilling can now offer MT4 trading platform to its current and new clients on a global level.
FXSpotStream released its trading volumes report for June and it proved to be the company’s third highest month ever in terms of ADV at USD 43.287 billion, a 19.88% increase from May 2020. The company’s Overall Volume reached USD 952.323 billion, a 25.59% MoM increase (June ’20 vs May ’20) and an increase of 12.68% YoY (June ’20 vs June ’19).
Exchange holding company Cboe Global Markets, Inc. announced the finalization of the acquisition of pan-European equities clearing house EuroCCP. The acquisition paves the way for Cboe to launch its new Amsterdam-based futures and options market Cboe Europe Derivatives in the first half of 2021. Cboe aims to further expand this business and utilise the strengths of its pan-European network and pursue the development of derivatives trading and clearing capabilities in the region.
Societe Generale Securities Australia Pty Ltd plead guilty to charges of client money offences. The plea follows ASIC’s announcement that it imposed additional conditions on the company’s Australian Financial Services (AFS) license to ensure compliance with client money regulations. Societe Generale’s Australian branch pleaded guilty to four separate counts for the events that occurred between December 2014 and February 2017. The bank pleaded guilty for breaching client money obligations and failing to separate its clients’ money from its own. SocGen also made payments out of client money accounts.
Crypto markets have been in something of a holding pattern of late. Since the steep losses incurred in March, the market has recovered to roughly where it stood just before the coronavirus crash and now appears to be awaiting its next move. The question on everyone’s lips is whether this next move will be to claim new yearly highs, or back down to retest the lows we saw in March. The fact that this is the same question on the minds of traders across many markets should reveal that the crypto market should no longer be seen as an uncorrelated wild-west that moves independently of other asset classes.
BDSwiss announced that it has obtained regulatory license under the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) as part of its global strategy for expansion. BDSwiss Group operates under different entities regulated by internationally accredited financial supervisory authorities since 2013. The company holds licenses from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Financial Services Commission (FSC – Mauritius) and most recently obtained one – the Financial Services Authority (FSA – Seychelles) under its newly-registered entity BDS Ltd.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority suspended Wirecard’s UK subsidiary and left thousands of people in the UK unable to access their money. The UK regulator froze Wirecard Card Solutions’ UK lincense to protect the company’s clients following the German-based parent company Wirecard AG filing for insolvency on Thursday last week after accounting firm Ernst & Young found that €1.9 billion were missing from the company’s accounts. The Wirecard scandal prompted Germany to give company accounting responsibilities to the market regulator BaFin. The German government has decided to terminate its relationship with Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel or “Deutsche Prüfstelle für Rechnungslegung” (DPR), a quasi-government entity that investigates accounting issues on behalf of public authorities. The DPR has been examining financial reporting of publicly listed companies since 2005 and reportedly audited Wirecard in 2019 but failed to “notice” the company’s issues.
Boutique FX broker consultancy SugarCane Capital announced its collaboration with automated FX market analytics provider Just. The partnership is aims to ensure SugarCane’s clients have absolute visibility over the charges levied by liquidity providers when making foreign exchange transactions, allowing transaction costs to be minimised. It is often difficult for clients to understand exactly how much they are being charged on each trade, per currency or instrument with fast-moving underlying market. Just has developed technology that delivers high levels of transparency and empowers customers with an audit trail showing exactly what costs they are incurring across providers, currency pairs and instruments.
Business Choice Partners Group Limited appeared on New Zealand Financial Markets Authority’s warning list. The New Zealand watchdog found that Business Choice Partners Group Limited claims to be recognized by the ‘national financial regulatory commission of Australia and New Zealand’, while in fact, there are no such regulatory bodies. The company’s websites also alleges to be operated by BCP Group Limited. BCP Group Limited, however, is not associated with the websites.
DEX obtained a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in the United Arab Emirates. The FSP authorizes regulated operation of Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and Custody platform by DEX using virtual assets serving retail customers, investors, trading companies and institutions around the world. The platform will facilitate buying and selling of virtual assets with all major international and local currencies in the UAE / GCC markets
London-based broker ActivTrades announced that it has registered a 73% YoY increase in the number of new client accounts in the second quarter of 2020. The jump in new accounts came amidst the Covid-19 crisis, which has seen trading volumes climb and sparked a surge in volatility on markets. ActivTrades rolled out various new products in the last few weeks, most notably CFDs on more than 100 new shares around the world, including Zoom Video Communications, the popular video conferencing company, and Cash products on stock indices such as the Brazilian Mini Ibovespa index and MDAX® – the international midcap index of Deutsche Börse.
Many businesses have seen their revenues drop significantly during these challenging times, as lockdown measures continue to disrupt business operations across the world. ATFX oversaw a seamless staff transition to remote working due to the existing infrastructure they had in place to support such an arrangement. The Forex broker has just announced the launch of its optimal Recur Live Chat solution to facilitate customer-specific targets that can help them learn more about customer expectations. The live chat box will provide ATFX with another channel to reach out to their customers since the technology can be leveraged to increase customer engagement with timely tips and offers. Moreover, the new live chat box complements the customer service team by providing the quickest response to clients.
The Swiss Stock Exchange’s Stage Program now includes UBS as its new research partner and Finanz und Wirtschaft as a new provider for factsheets. Baader Helvea and Zürcher Kantonalbank will continue to be involved as research partners. The Stage Program was launched in September 2016 and it aims to raise the visibility of listed small and medium-sized companies and to help a growing number of listed companies expand their presence in the capital market and with important stakeholders. Since its launch, the program has seen growing interest.
