FOREX.Com Japan – the subsidiary of online trading group GAIN Capital (NYSE:GCAP), will undergo rebranding next month. As of October 1, 2014, the company will be named GAIN Capital Japan Co. Ltd. The new name reflects the importance of the global brand, but also a new focus of the business on the GTX institutional offering.
The shift in focus is indeed interesting, as the actions of GAIN in Japan until this point have been directed at the retail business. With regard to this matter, Forex.com Japan announced the acquisition of Planex Trade FX business just a couple of weeks ago, a deal set to boost the retail FX business of the Japanese company. In a press release on the re-branding, however, GAIN Capital insists that it will keep servicing its retail clients and that it still offers access to MetaTrader 4 and ForexTrader.
But the Japanese subsidiary wants to fit in better in the GAIN Capital global brand and the institutional offering. In the official announcement, GAIN Capital says the “focus will be on the provision of the state-of-the-art GTX ECN”. This gives a clear hint at a pending launch of the institutional platform and related services in Japan.
It is intriguing to see GAIN Capital make a move towards the booming institutional trading market in Japan, after setting its foot in the country in 2009. GAIN GTX can tap the expertise of its business in Singapore, where it has been active since 2011. Asia can definitely provide a wide clientele for GTX, thanks to the large presence of hedge funds, banks and asset managers. They can use the GTX platform for trading and also they can make use of white label partnerships.
The first half of 2014 has seen GTX institutional trading volumes reach their highest levels since the launch of the platform. During the six-month period GTX volumes amounted to $2,449.4 billion (ADV: $19.1 billion), accounting for the majority of the total institutional trading. Moreover, thanks to deal closed in mid-July, GAIN managed to secure the intellectual property backbone of GTX and pave the way for the growth of the institutional business.
You can read the official announcement about the re-branding here