This past week’s FX and CFD industry news was once again dominated by the prop trading firms, as the chaos in the prop sector has effectively “spilled over” into the CFDs business. Prop firms are all working hard (and fast) to redo broker relationships and move their clients to other trading platforms (from MT4 and MT5) after MetaQuotes has moved to remove prop-initiated business from its books.
However there was lots more, including a couple of Retail FX and CFD brokers acquiring licenses in South Africa, and a number of broker and B2B firms adding executives including iSAM Securities, Finalto, BidX Markets, and CPT Markets.
Some of the most read and commented-on FX/CFD industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:
Prop firm Funding Pips adding Match-Trader, cTrader, DXtrade platforms to replace MT4/MT5. Following our report from last week that popular retail prop trading firm Funding Pips had ceased operations after MT4/MT5 developer MetaQuotes abruptly halted its services due to active US accounts, the company is indicating that it is in the process of adding a number of alternative trading platforms for its clients.
XS.com acquires licensed South Africa CFDs broker Ubutyebi. Retail FX and CFDs broker XS.com has announced that it has acquired Ubutyebi Financial Services, a licensed Financial Service Provider (FSP) regulated and endorsed by the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). In an official announcement, XS.com revealed that the acquisition enables the establishment of “XS ZA,” a licensed Financial Service Provider entity in South Africa, with license number 53199, setting the stage for broader expansion across the African region for XS.com.
Exclusive: Offshore CFDs broker OnEquity adds South Africa FSCA license. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that offshore Retail FX and CFDs broker OnEquity has added a South Africa FSCA license for its subsidiary OnEquity (Pty) Ltd. To date, OnEquity has operated via Seychelles domiciled OnEquity Ltd. The company has also hired former IronFX executive Enver Snyders, as Country Manager for South Africa.
Plus500 registers 13% Y/Y drop in revenues in 2023. Retail Forex and CFD broker Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) today announced its preliminary unaudited results for the year ended 31 December 2023. Revenue in FY 2023 was $726.2m (FY 2022: $832.6m), comprising trading income of $674.3m and interest income of $51.9m. EBITDA for FY 2023 was $340.5m (FY 2022: $453.8m) with an EBITDA margin of 47% (FY 2022: 55%). The result reflected lower levels of trading activity seen across the global financial markets during the year.
Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:
❑ Aaron Brown joins iSAM Securities to drive growth in MENA region.
❑ Exclusive: Trivepro institutional sales head David Papier leaves for CPT Markets.
❑ Finalto hires Saxo exec Daniel Leis as Sales Director.
❑ Edgewater Markets hires Liquidity.net exec Raja Thakur as Director Institutional Sales.
❑ BidX Markets hires Liam Bonfield as CFO.
