Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 19th and 23th April on LeapRate.
Chicago-based futures brokerage and clearing firm R.J. O’Brien & Associates (RJO) has promoted Christopher Bove to Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). Bove is nearly a 20-year veteran in the compliance, market regulation, legal analysis and law enforcement area. Before his promotion, he served at the company as Director, Compliance since November 2020. He joined RJO in 2019 as Associate Director, Compliance. Between 2012 and 2019 Bove served as an Investigator, then Senior Investigator and eventually Lead Investigator in CME Group’s Market Regulation department.
Derivatives market CME Group has recently announced that it has worked to integrate its FX Link resource with MarkitSERV messaging services from IHS Market alongside Refinitiv Trade Notification. This new link-up will mean that CME Group clients will now enjoy a far more streamlined onboarding experience, meeting Straight Through Processing (STP) requirements thanks to the ability to directly receive OTC spot FX messages via MarkitSERV or RTN.
Multi-asset financial products provider Equiti Group has added another lot of energy stocks to its product offering on Earth Day, called “Restore the Earth” in 2021. The company has added these new products in response to increasing demand from traders for environmentally sustainable stocks. Among those newly added “green” or “clean energy” company stocks are iFirst Solar, Solar Edge, SunPower, Enphase Energy, and electrical vehicles such as Tesla, Nikola and NIO.
Credit Suisse has just posted its financial results for the first quarter of 2021. The company reported net loss of CHF 252 million in Q1 2021. The numbers reflected a significant charge in relation to the US-based hedge fund matter. The company reported a pre-tax loss of CHF 757 million in the first quarter of 2021 and a pre-tax charge of CHF 4.4 bn relating to the US-based hedge fund matter. Credit Suisse noted that the results have been strong with net revenues excluding significant items and US-based hedge fund matter reaching CHF 7.4 billion. The number marks a 35% year-on-year increase.
Global forex and CFD broker FXOpen has just announced that their ASIC-regulated business unit, FXOpen AU, are adding equity markets to its product portfolio. The brokerage will now offer more than 100 US shares to trade as CFDs on an ECN account, US companies such as Facebook, Tesla and Amazon. The global FXOpen group first launched Equity markets last year and it has reported that they are very popular amongst its clients.
Multi-asset brokerage, JFD Group, reported that its CEO and co-founder Lars Gottwik has confirmed he will step down from his role in the company by the end of April. Gottwik oversaw a number of significant achievements for the firm, including the acquisition of Acon Actienbank AG, a German investment bank now operating under the name JFD Bank AG. Gottwik leaves the global investment firm following over ten years of tireless efforts and consistent growth.
IS Prime, part of ISAM Capital Markets Group, revealed that Eduard Poltavsky has joined the company as Sales Director. At the newly created position, Poltavsky will focus mainly on sales of IS Prime’s Agency Execution service to banks, hedge funds and asset managers across the EMEA region. Eduard Poltavsky brings vast experience in senior e-FX sales positions to the FCA regulated Prime of Prime brokerage. Poltavsky most recently served as Performance Director, FX Market Development, EMEA at Refinitiv.
Plus500, a technology platform for CFD trading, announced it has agreed to acquire regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Cunningham Commodities LLC, and technology trading platform provider, operating in the futures and options on futures market in the US, Cunningham Trading Systems LLC (CTS). The acquisition allows Plus500 to expand its geographic footprint and product offering in the US retail trading market in futures and options on futures.
The foreign exchange settlement provider CLS Group has reported an increase in volumes in March 2021. The average daily traded volumes reached $1.977 trillion in March with 1.8% MoM rise compared to February. CLS saw a growing demand across forward, swap, and spot FX markets. FX swaps lead with $1.377 trillion in March, a 3% jump compared to the previous month when it was $1.353 trillion. The numbers were also higher on yearly basis compared to March last year when the financial market saw its highest numbers amid the unprecedented volatility spiked by the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Forex technology company Your Bourse is partnering with FastMT to release an MT4 Datacentre / MT5 Access as a Service product. The new product will deliver optimal connectivity and ultra-low latency to MetaTrader brokers. Your Bourse and FastMT have combined their expertise and experience working in the FX/CFDs industry to develop a solution that responds to the needs of an MT4 / MT5 broker and their global client base.
