Forex industry news at LeapRate this past week was headlined by some old faces in new places. Or more precisely, some big name brands making some big additions and changes.
The one large global financial brand which is closely linked with online trading, Goldman Sachs, opened its own online retail outfit for the first time called GSBank.com. CMC Markets continued its post-IPO branchout with the launch of Binary Options trading. And ETX Capital continued to reshape it management team and board, looking very much like a company headed toward the IPO altar.
Our most popular guest post of the week was courtesy of Advanced Markets’ Natallia Hunik, What no one is telling you about FX Margin Aggregation.
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Some of the most popular, shared and commented-on posts this past week on LeapRate included:
Goldman Sachs opens its doors to online Retail clients with GSBank.com
. Investment giant Goldman Sachs, long known for serving just corporate customers and only the richest of the rich in its private wealth management unit, is heading to the opposite end of the investment spectrum with the launch this week of its online bank GSBank.com. GSBank is geared totally to the Retail investor, something brand new for Goldman Sachs. Its minimum deposit is just $1. So why is Goldman Sachs getting into Online Retail Banking? And will this lead Goldman to expand to online Retail Trading as well?
CMC Markets adds Binary Options trading. CMC Markets continues its post-IPO growth push. In an exclusive interview with LeapRate around the time of CMC’s IPO, CEO Peter Cruddas pointed out to us that CMC would be looking to use its new platform as a public company to expand in both geographies and products. After adding Countdowns, CMC Markets has now added more traditional binary options trading.
ETX Capital adds Vocalink CFO Claire Hafner as a Director. LeapRate has learned that Vocalink CFO Claire Hafner has joined as a Director on the board of Monecor London Limited, the parent company of FCA regulated online broker ETX Capital. Payments company VocaLink processes more than 90% of salaries, over 70% of household bills and almost all state benefits in the UK. Last year the company processed over 11 billion transactions with a value of £6 trillion. ETX has been making some bold management and strategic moves lately. Is this ETX Capital preparing for an IPO?
US Justice Department pursuing FX chat room collusion criminal charges thanks to informant. News outlets are reporting that the ongoing US Justice Department investigation into chat room collusion by FX traders at some of London’s big banks might finally be coming to a conclusion. Apparently one of the London-based FX traders from the chat room ‘Cartel’ has agreed to a reduced sentence in return for a guilty plea and cooperating with US authorities. So who is the US government informant? From which bank? And how about the parallel UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation?
IG Group partners with Survation for Brexit referendum polling.
Tickmill hits record monthly trading volume of over $32 billion.