Almost a month has passed since AvaTrade acquired the Australian customer base of Sydney-based retail FX firm YouTradeFX, providing AvaTrade with a further expansion into the Asia Pacific region.
This move was the first signal that YouTradeFX may be in its twilight moments. Today, a further indicator has become apparent, as all websites for the firm have become inoperative, including youtradefx.com.au and ytfx.com, across all regions.
The potential to acquire YouTradeFX’s client base had been the subject of great interest to AvaTrade’s Australian subsidiary Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty, with the firm having actively concentrated on sealing the deal over the course of a few months until it came to fruition in July.
In the latter part of Last year, the YouTradeFX’s British division applied to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK for a Voluntary Variation of Permission, meaning that the company can no longer conduct any investment business in the Britain.
Whilst YouTradeFX based itself in Sydney and operated using a regulatory license from the well respected Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), as well as having previously held the aforementioned FCA license, the company’s operations were based in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a great many of sales staff having joined the company from Dealserv and its satellite company 4XP following its demise last year. The company had expanded under previous CEO Guy Gilboa, who left YouTradeFX over two years ago.
LeapRate has attempted to contact YouTradeFX senior management with regard to its future plans and to establish the reasons for the sites having become inoperative, however no answer was proffered.