Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 6th and 10th of July on LeapRate.
GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GCAP) reported its operating metrics for May 2020. The US online trading services provider’s retail segment metrics are much more stable than the last few months. The OTC trading volume for the retail segment rose to $222.3 billion from $179.3 last month, registering a 24% MoM growth. The numbers are also up by 61.4% compared to June last year.
Raj Sitlani, Managing Director of ISAM Capital Markets, talked with LeapRate about the key milestones leading to their business success. Sitlani explained the importance of proprietary technology and that it has been essential from the beginning, setting the company apart from the others today. He further elaborated into the important landmarks that contributed to the IS Prime’s astronomic growth.
Swiss-based retail FX and CFDs broker Dukascopy Bank announced the start of its operation in Ukraine. Dukascopy has partnered with Ukraine-based public joint-stock company Bank SICH. The collaboration will enable Bank SICH’s clients to trade on Dukascopy’s flagship platform, JForex. Bank SICH has extended its product range with a Forex and CFD trading solution powered by Dukascopy Bank. The new solution will operate under the name PowerBank®Trade and will be regulated by the National Bank of Ukraine.
Banking and financial services holding company BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank have developed together a new API-enabled FX solution that can make significant improvements to the confirmation times for restricted emerging-market currency trades. The digital solution was initially applied to custody FX transactions in Korean Won. The solution aims to reduce the pre-trade lifecycle from hours to second, minimizing the operational burden and manual intervention encountered in emerging-market custody FX.
Credit Financier Invest (CFI) announced the promotion of Nidal Abdel Hadi as the new Chief Executive Officer of the company’s Dubai unit. Hadi joined the CFI Financial Group as deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2018. He has accumulated extensive experience with over twenty years of working in the field. He has influenced and helped shape the online trading business in key positions between Europe, Asia and the GCC area throughout his career.
UK online trading leader IG Group Holdings plc announced the appointment of Rakesh Bhasin as a non-executive director and a member of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) Committee of the Board. With vast experience as a non-executive director across multiple sectors and companies, Bhasin is also a chairman of pan-African network group and Middle East carrier CMC Networks.
Israel-based online trading broker Plus500 reported record number of active customers on its platform and revenue for the quarter almost tripling as the market crisis caused a surge in trading activity. The company also announced that interim chief executive officer David Zruia’s position was made permanent. Zruia took the role of interim CEO on 20 April from Asaf Elimelech who resigned. Elimelech joined Plus500 in 2012 and undertook his role as CEO in 2016. He stepped down after over 4 years at the helm, having navigated the company through turbulence and regulatory changes.
Kraken subsidiary Crypto Facilities obtained Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The new license will allow Crypto Facilities to expand its product range and better serve institutional clients who are required to trade on licensed platforms. Crypto Facilities, also known as Kraken Futures, offers futures contracts in BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH and LTC with up to 50x leverage. Leveraged, cash-settled futures contracts can be a useful tool for traders looking for crypto assets exposure without holding or accepting delivery of the product.
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission imposed €650,000 on Germany’s Commerzbank for its role in transactions executed by the Cyprus Popular Bank (CPB) that collapsed during the country’s 2013 financial crisis. The CySEC investigation found that Commerzbank had been sanctioned for investment operations carried out by the CPB in 2011 (also known as Laiki). The events followed Laiki’s merger with Greece’s Marfin-Egnatia Bank. CySEC stated that the CPB invested in two structured products issued by Commerzbank AG in 2008. Marfin-Egnatia was initially appointed as index sponsor, in charge of the composition of the portfolio. With the 2011 merger between Marfin-Egnatia and CPB, CPB became the index sponsor and thus created a conflict of interest.
The institutional unit of FXCM Group, FXCM Pro, announced its has teamed up with trading technology provider Tradesocio. The two companies collaborated to provide banks, brokers, asset managers and other buy-side institutions with a full fintech solution that combines Tradesocio’s digital investment and trading technology with FXCM Pro’s institutional liquidity and global scale. Tradesocio’s client base in New York and London will gain access to FXCM Pro’s institutional liquidity and in return, FXCM Pro’s clients can use Tradesocio’s customisable trading technology, providing automated and fast track investing for its clients.
FCA regulated Playtech subsidiary, CFH announced additions to its Bullion offering. It now covers a list of synthetic instruments based on the underlying Loco London gold offering in responds to market needs in Australia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, UAE and Turkey. The offering provides a convenient way for clients to hedge gold positions quoted in different weight units and local currencies. The additions to the offering cater to the niche but growing requirements from bullion traders who receive gold trades from end clients denominated in grams or taels. CFH has added contracts to their bullion offering including gold in teal against Hong Kong dollar, gold in grams against USD and Gold in grams against CNH.
Global clearing house LCH announced that European Investment Bank (EIB) is the first supranational institution to join LCH SA’s RepoClear service as a clearing member. EIB will now be able to directly access LCH’s tri-party basket repo clearing service €GCPlus. Clearing €GCPlus allows its members to enlarge and advance their capital and operational efficiencie, as well as better manage their euro cash liquidity. EIB will not only be clearing €GCPlus but will also be able to extend its access to LCH SA’s RepoClear service offering clearing for bond and repo trades across 13 European markets.
Deutsche Börse announced the trading volumes for Eurex and EEX for June 2020. Eurex reported a growth of 66.1% of European equity index derivatives contracts turnover with 111.8 million for June 2020, compared to 66.1 million for the previous month. The volumes of European equity index derivatives were 29 million. Overall, June volumes at Eurex stood at 192.1 million, 57.7% up MoM compared to 121.8 million in May 2020.
Deutsche Börse launched online analytics platform A7. It is an addition to Deutsche Börse’s 7 Market technology series. The platform provides access to Eurex and Xetra order-by-order historical market data in nanosecond granularity within an easy-to-use environment, providing insights into market situations and microstructures. The platform also offers direct access to advanced analytics based on Deutsche Börse’s comprehensive market data to help clients maximize their trading efficiency and alpha generation and in developing and testing execution algorithms, among other use cases.
Exchange holding company Cboe Global Markets, Inc. reported June 2020 volumes, with the fluctuations in the market in previous months having settled down. Options ADV up 11.2%, Futures up 37.3%, US Equities rose up 6.5% and Global FX grew 10.4% compared to the previous month. Cboe EDGX Options Exchange monthly ADV registered more than one million contracts, marking a new all-time monthly high for June.
Integral released its trading volumes report for June 2020. The FX technology provider reported stability in last months numbers with month over month growth in volumes compared to the declines from the last few months. The average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms totaled $35.1 billion in June, registering a 7.7% MoM increase compared to May volumes. However, the numbers are 3.6% down compared to the same period in 2019.
Euronext, the pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, released its trading volumes for June 2020. The total cash market reached EUR 244,406.7 in June, 34.5% MoM increase compared to EUR 181,728.3 in May. ADV cash market reached 11,109.4 up by 22.3% compared to May. Euronext FX, formerly FastMatch, registered $484 billion volume (up 18.3% MoM from May’s $409 billion), considering the 22 trading days last month. Euronext’s volumes increased 25.8% YoY from over $385 billion for the same period last year.
The Russian market operator Moscow Exchange Group (MOEX) reported a RUB 72.9 trillion in trading volumes, up by 20.3% MoM (RUB 60.6 trillion in May 2020). All sections of the market registered growth in June, compared to the previous month when they were all in decline. The Money Market led with 23.5% MoM growth, the Derivatives Market followed with 21% MoM. FX Market grew by 19% MoM and Equity by 14.4% MoM.
