Andrew Saks-McLeod
LeapRate Analyst
March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Software AG’s Apama Unveils FX Abuse Monitoring Product

German software giant apparently sees a big market developing in FX monitoring in light of rate fixing scandal German technology company Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) has today launched an additional service to its Apama market surveillance solution which includes alerts to signal manipulation in FX market benchmarks and rate fixing. The additional service has been developed…

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March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

France's National Marketing Watchdog Clamps Down On FX Advertising

French advertising and marketing authorities set forth criteria to ensure caveats relating to online promotion of leveraged investment products A set of stringent rules has been published by Autorite de Regulation Professionnelle de la Publicite (ARRP), the French marketing regulator, with the intention of clamping down on the methods by which leveraged investment products, including…

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March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Hong Kong FX Broker KVB Kunlun Reports Profit For 2013

Full KVB results due for release next week, but preliminary filing states that a loss in 2012 has turned into a profit for 2013 One of the Far East's prominent executing venues, the Hong Kong Exchange (HKeX) has today released internal information relating to publicly listed FX broker KVB Kunlun (HKG:8077) for the year ended December…

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March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

JP Morgan Buys Into Plus500

JP Morgan Asset Management and JP Morgan Securities acquire 4% of Plus500. CFD broker Plus500 (PLUS.L) can look back over recent events with some degree of satisfaction, with the entity continually demonstrating high stock prices since its equally high-ticket IPO. Today, the company has published a notification of major interest in shares, denoting that corporate…

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March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Lord Grabiner To Lead Bank FX Manipulation Probe

Bank of England Oversight Committee appoints leading Queen's Counsel to head independent investigation Following this week's series of questions which were posed to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney in an attempt by British government officials to ascertain as to whether any possible manipulation of FX benchmarks by banks could have been known to the…

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March 13, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Is Currency Trading Heading On-Exchange? NASDAQ OMX Considers Foray Into FX

A timely exercise by global exchange services & trading technology firm in the light of regulatory push for greater transparency Market participants in the institutional FX sector's most populous regions have experienced comprehensive regulatory overhauls during the last year, spearheaded by the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act which stipulated that over the counter derivatives including…

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March 12, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Network Of Traders Or Financial Advice? FCA Swoops In On Social FX Trading Platforms

British financial markets regulator issues letter to companies offering copy trading services to retail FX clients, notifying intention to classify them as investment managers LeapRate Exclusive... It was only a matter of time before one of the world's most established financial markets regulators took the lead in investigating the possibility of producing specific regulatory guidelines…

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March 12, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

CLS Settlement Value Remains Above $5 Trillion During February

FX settlement instructions down very slightly compared to January at CLS FX settlement company CLS held firm during February this year, with its value of trades having remained in excess of $5 trillion, congruent with its performance during the first month of the year. Whilst total daily volumes among post-trade settlement firms tends to vary…

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March 12, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Market Maker Virtu Financial Unveils $100 Million IPO Plans

As window of opportunity continues to present itself, is it a good time to go public? US-based institutional market maker Virtu Financial has this week unveiled its intentions to raise approximately $100 million via its issuing of an initial public offering (IPO) which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday this week,…

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March 12, 2014 BY Andrew Saks-McLeod

Fed Extends Arm To HFT Recognizing Contribution To Market Efficiency

Federal Reserve of New York Researcher Ernst Schaumburg Considers HFT Vital For Efficient FX Order Flow As the somewhat draconian steps being taken by the European Commission toward high frequency trading (HFT) continue to take shape, the viewpoint of senior officials across the pond denote a contrasting perspective. The New York Federal Reserve has released a…

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