This will be a week which many in the FX industry won’t soon forget, in part because of what didn’t happen. After several months of debate and a few more months of waiting, the FCA decided to delay its implementation of new rules governing the leveraged Forex and CFDs sector until at least early 2018.
We had exclusive reports on more binary options brokerage closures, more strategic moves among leading shareholders of publicly traded brokers, executive moves, and lots more.
Some of our most popular, shared and commented-on posts this week at LeapRate included:
FCA delays FX and CFD leverage rules to 2018. UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has dropped another bombshell. After shocking the Forex and CFD brokerage sectors in December with surprise proposals to rein in leverage and bonus payments to retail clients, the FCA today announced that it will be delaying the finalization of its proposals into at least early 2018. What has led the FCA to delay? Get all the details, now at LeapRate.
Exclusive: Anyoption ceases Binary Options activity. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that CySEC regulated binary options broker Anyoption is, well, on its way to no longer being a binary broker. Sources inform LeapRate that the company has apparently taken the strategic decision to abandon binary options, in favour of building out its offering of FX pair and CFD trading. Read all about it, including the full text of the email sent out to Anyoption affiliates on the matter, exclusively now at LeapRate.
Exclusive: William Hill shutting its online operations in Israel, laying off more than 200. LeapRate Exclusive… In a post of ours which was later widely cited in leading gaming sector publications, LeapRate has learned from sources in Israel that online gaming giant William Hill will be shutting its operation in the country. William Hill began operating in Israel in 2008 in a joint venture with Teddy Sagi’s Playtech, today a major player in both retail and institutional FX. What happened to the JV with Playtech? Why is William Hill shutting its Israel branch? Get all the details, exclusively now at LeapRate.
Exclusive: Goldman Sachs selling its stake in FX broker CMC Markets. LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned via regulatory filings that global investment bank Goldman Sachs has been steadily selling down its 5% stake in UK based online FX and spread betting broker CMC Markets over the past few weeks. Goldman Sachs has been a long term investor in CMC Markets, and in fact was the company’s second largest shareholder behind founder and CEO Peter Cruddas when CMC went public in a £218 million IPO last year. So why sell now, after holding a 5% stake in CMC for so long?
24option reinstated in France by AMF. Nearly one year after being banned in France, CySEC regulated Binary Options, Forex and CFDs broker 24option.com was reinstated by French regulator AMF. What did 24option do to get the ban in the first place? What was now ‘fixed’, allowing 24option to resume activity? And what does this have to do with France’s general ban on Binary Options, FX and CFD advertising? We explain it all, now at LeapRate.
Teddy Sagi nets $429 million from Playtech share sale. Following our report from last night that Teddy Sagi’s holding company had informed Playtech PLC that Mr. Sagi intended to sell 32 million Playtech shares in an effort to diversify his investments, the company announced early this morning that the share sale was indeed increased in size and completed. But, at a fairly steep discount to Playtech’s current share price.
TechFinancials downsizes Israel Binary Options office. The shoes continue to drop in the Israel binary options sector. After our earlier exclusive report that rival Anyoption was ceasing all binary options activity – after previously moving all call center and client facing operations out of the country – LeapRate has learned from sources close to the company that TechFinancials Inc (LON:TECH) is significantly downsizing its Herzliya, Israel offices (pictured above), letting go of many Israel based employees as it moves positions out of the country. So where are the jobs going?
In Forex Industry executive moves reported this week at LeapRate:
- Exclusive: ADS Securities replaces Louisa Kwok with Paul Webb to head FX Prime-of-Prime
- Horizon appoints Ben Wood as EMEA & Americas Senior Sales Executive
- SafeCharge returns Tsach Einav to CFO role, replacing Tim Mickley
- FCM Advantage Futures appoints Carlos Rodriguez as CFO