Do regulators have to also pay fines themselves for making administrative errors? In a fairly quick and somewhat bizarre about-face to the story we broke earlier today (that CySEC and UFX Markets had "compromised on" an €100,000 fine for UFX Markets' regulated parent company Reliantco, for undisclosed actions), CySEC has now issued a new letter recalling…
Read moreAlthough the fine remains shrouded in mystery as to what UFX was actually charged with doing. Cyprus' financial regulator CySEC disclosed today it had fined UFX Markets (or more specifically, its regulated parent holding company Reliantco Investments Ltd) the sum of €100,000, The fine followed a CySEC investigation "for reasonable suspicion of committing possible violations" of Cyprus'…
Read moreNFA's plan to ban credit card or PayPal-type deposits to retail Forex and futures accounts looks likely to go ahead. Our article posted last week breaking the news that the NFA plans to ban the use of credit cards and "alternative funding mechanisms" such as PayPal to fund retail customer accounts has generated a tremendous…
Read moreICAP being investigated for possible role in helping banks in their efforts to rig interest rates. Interbroker dealer ICAP, which also operates EBS, one of the leading Forex ECNs, acknowledged that it has been asked to provide information to regulators regarding the setting of Libor, and that one of its subsidiaries is the subject of an…
Read moreWill Hotspot FX soon have a new owner? Hotspot FX reported that volumes in its Forex ECN system fell in December to average $19.6 billion daily, down 9% from November's $21.6 billion -- but up 2% from last-year December's $19.2 billion. The numbers basically match what we already reported for the overall FX industry, with our Retail…
Read moreContinues Saxo Bank's aggressive international expansion, at the same time that it is cutting costs. Saxo Bank, one of the world's largest retail FX firms (and a member of LeapRate's Approved List of global FX brokerages), has announced the opening of a new office in Istanbul, Turkey. Over the past year, Saxo Bank has added offices in…
Read moreThe NFA (and those lobbying it) clearly looking to kill the Retail FX sector in the US. LeapRate Exclusive -- LeapRate has learned that the NFA (the self-regulatory body of the U.S. futures industry) has sent a Request-for-Comments letter to various industry members regarding its plan to ban the use of credit cards or "alternative…
Read moreHowever volume decrease was less than usual "December effect" drop. LeapRate's Retail FX Volume Index, sponsored by Leverate, was down 5% in December to $170 billion per day. However December volumes are usually significantly slower -- down typically 15-20% from a regular month -- due to the annual holiday season, so the 5% drop makes December 2012…
Read moreDow Jones is re-doing the way it distributes news feeds. Tradable, the new online trading app platform, announced today a major win as Dow Jones will develop a news app based on its leading FX Select news service, exclusively for the tradable platform. Tradable's vision, of having traders access information and tools such as charting,…
Read moreDefections begin for Knight Capital, which is being acquired by rival Getco. In what seems like a very nice pickup for Gain Capital CEO Glenn Stevens and his team, Gain has hired Knight Capital's Joe Wald to head Gain GTX, Gain's institutional FX platform. Wald had come to Knight via Knight's acquisition of the algorithmic…
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