April 10, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

CFTC fines Interactive Brokers $225K for segregated client fund failures

Amounts to a small slap on the wrist for Interactive Brokers, but shows the CFTC is cracking down on safety-of-client-fund issues. The CFTC has assessed a $225,000 fine against Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq:IBKR), a leading U.S.-based online brokerage which also is the #5 retail FX brokerage in the U.S. The CFTC cited Interactive Brokers for: failing to…

Read more
April 09, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

LeapRate FX Fraud Watch – Forex Global Solutions, Barry Sendach, and Joshua Kershner

CFTC orders those named to pay $750,000, and imposes permanent trading and registration bans. The CFTC has ordered Barry Sendach of Boca Raton, FL and Joshua Kershner of Boynton Beach, FL, and their Boca Raton-based company Forex Global Solutions to pay a $750,000 fine for fraudulently soliciting customers to trade FX, and for violating CFTC registration requirements.…

Read more
April 09, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Cyprus FX brokers allowed to skirt customer privacy laws

CySEC allows FX brokers to release client names and data to banks, to allow for release of client funds. LeapRate Exclusive... We reported (exclusively) last week that segregated client fund bank accounts held by Cyprus FX brokers at Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus would NOT be subject to the "haircut" (or more correctly, confiscation)…

Read more
April 08, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

FXall and Thomson Reuters post flat/lower volumes in March

...although Thomson Reuters retakes the #1 Forex ECN title back from ICAP EBS. Continuing the mixed-results FX volumes trend for March we've seen so far at the CME Group and at ICAP EBS, Thomson Reuters and its FXall unit each reported ho-hum FX volumes results in March. Thomson Reuters was actually down 4% from February…

Read more
April 08, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Dukascopy signs yet another Japan white label client – AFT FX

Dukascopy's JForex platform becoming more popular for smaller no-dealing-desk brokers. It seems as though Dukascopy is fast becoming a Forex ECN unto itself. After recently announcing white label deals for its JForex platform in Australia (Forex FS) and Turkey (Integral Menkul Değerler), now comes word that Dukascopy has signed a similar deal with Japan's AFT FX,…

Read more
April 08, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Thomson Reuters ex employee claims leaks to ultra-low-latency subscribers

Lawsuit brought by former TRI employee claims insider survey leaks. An interesting lawsuit brought against Thomson Reuters by former employee Mark Rosenblum claims that the bimonthly Thomson Reuters / University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers had a "tiered" release, giving certain "ultra-low-latency" subscribers to the survey a brief trading advantage, based on receiving the information earlier.  Rosenblum's…

Read more
April 04, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

ICAP EBS reports FX volumes down 19% in March

Has EBS now lost its lead in the Forex ECN business to rivals Thomson Reuters and FXall? ICAP's Forex ECN unit EBS reported March FX trading volumes at $120.4 billion (average daily volume for the month), down 19% from February and down 2% from last year March. After two strong months to start the year, things slowed down at EBS in March.…

Read more
April 04, 2013 BY Gerald Segal

Monex Japan reports FX volumes down 28% in March

Japan's retail Forex brokers are having a hard time duplicating January and February's great start to the year. Monex Group, a mid-size Japanese retail FX broker, announced that March volumes came in at ¥126,613 million per day (about $30 billion in monthly volume), down about 28% from February's $41 billion in monthly volume. Still, one of…

Read more