Forex Weekly Look Back: The Rangers pick Fortrade as official partner, Cboe completes acquisition of BIDS Trading

Steffy Bogdanova
January 8, 2021 11:02 am

Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 4th and 8th January on LeapRate.

Gold-i has integrated with CryptoCortex, a digital asset trading platform from EPAM Systems, a global provider of digital platform engineering and development services. The integration provides financial institutions with increased access to multiple market makers and fully cleared cryptocurrency products available through Gold-i’s CryptoSwitch 2.0, part of its Matrix multi-asset liquidity management platform.

The fully authorized and regulated broker of CFDs, Spread Betting and FX trading, Capital Index has selected the compliance technology and data analytics firm SteelEye for MiFIR and EMIR reporting services. Following CME Group’s announcement of closing the NEX Abide business last year, a many firms were forced to find a replacement solution for EMIR and MiFIR reporting.

The global clearing house LCH today announced that it has successfully launched non-deliverable FX options clearing across nine currency pairs. Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan are among the first participants to clear the product. The launch of non-deliverable FX options clearing builds on LCH ForexClear’s existing offering, adding to the clearing of non-deliverable FX forwards, deliverable FX options and deliverable FX forwards.

The market operator and global trading solutions provider Cboe Global Markets, Inc. reported its December monthly and full year 2020 metrics. December volumes were down compared to November, however Cboe reported uptick in most areas on yearly basis. For the full year the company reported rise in most sections.

The derivatives marketplace CME Group released its financial results for the full year, the fourth quarter and the month of December. The company reported reaching average daily volume (ADV) of 19.1 million contracts during the year, 16.2 million contracts during the fourth quarter and 14.2 million contracts during the month of December.

Fast-growing Foreign Exchange specialist Ballinger & Co. and global financial brokerage ED&F Man Capital Markets Ltd. (MCML) announced they have entered into a partnership. The collaboration between the two companies combines Ballinger’s deliverable Foreign Exchange offering for corporate and institutional clients with MCML’s capital markets expertise, tier-one settlement capabilities and global footprint.

The global online trading platform IG Group has issued a trading update regarding Brexit for its European Economic Area (EEA) clients asking them to transfer their accounts to IG Europe. The broker recently announced its UK arm will not service EEA clients after 31 December 2020 and the Britain’s exit from the European Union. The company warned its European clients that IG UK companies will be set to closings only.

Global trading provider CFI Financial Group has just announced reducing the spreads further across various instruments. The reduction is going to be up to 31% with some financial products now reaching zero spreads. This is part of the company’s ongoing effort to improving its brand for investing and trading. The move comes at a time when volatility is rising across the financial markets given the continuous uncertainty felt around the world.

Market operator and global trading solutions provider Cboe Global Markets has announced the completion of its acquisition of BIDS Trading, a registered broker-dealer and the operator of the BIDS Alternative Trading System (ATS), the largest block-trading ATS by volume in the US. With the recent acquisition, Cboe gains a competitive footing in the off-exchange segment of the US equities market, which now accounts for over 40 % of overall US equities trading volume. The acquisition of BIDS Trading also allows Cboe to expand its global footprint and diversify its product and service offerings in markets beyond US equities and options.

The Scottish professional football club Rangers has announced Fortrade as their new Official Online Trading Partner. The UK-based Fintech company will enter an initial 18-month partnership. The Fortrade brand was visible to a global television audience on the LED boards for last weekend’s Old Firm match at Ibrox as part of a wide-ranging partnership that includes visibility at Ibrox and across Rangers digital platforms.

FX technology provider Integral released its trading volumes for December 2020 with small but steady growth compared to November and on yearly basis. The company registered average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms of $48.5 billion in December 2020. This represents 1.5% MoM increase compared to November when it reached $47.8 billion.

Forex Weekly Look Back

Eventus Systems, Inc., a global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, has announced that the firm experienced unprecedented growth in multiple areas in 2020, marking its strongest year to date in revenue and new client onboardings. The company has additional expansion plans for 2021, with deeper penetration in asset classes such as equities, foreign exchange (FX), fixed income and digital assets.

The derivatives marketplace CME Group today announced four new Japanese electricity futures contracts and two new LNG futures contracts will be available for trading on 8 February, 2021, pending regulatory review. The addition of four new electricity futures contracts expand CME Group’s suite of global power futures and options and fill a gap in the Japanese electricity futures market, providing traders a platform for block-trade submission to CME Clearing.  The two new LNG contracts offer Japanese power producers an efficient tool to manage their price risk.

VT Markets, a CFD broker under Vantage International Group, have launched their new branding and new website, which are intended to represent the company’s core values and reflect a further dedication to client success and relationships. Along with the unveiling of the new branding, VT Markets also launched an updated corporate website focused on providing clients with more information about the products, services, and platforms offered.

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is expanding its regulatory framework and updating the Payment Services Act to keep up with changes to international standards and to better mitigate and reduce the money laundering and terrorism financing related to digital payment tokens. Any entity that deals with the transmission, exchange or storage of Digital Payment Tockens (DPTs) – also known as cryptocurrencies – will now have to be licensed, MAS announced on Monday.

Edgewater Markets, technology provider offering access to the FX & Precious Metal markets globally, has announced the appointment of Jonathan Abrahams as Director of Quality Assurance, based out of its headquarters in New York. Abrahams will lead the Quality Assurance team, continuing to ensure the standards of product Edgewater Markets offers to its clients.

The online contracts for differences (CFD) broker Plus500 announced that its managing director Gal Haber has notified the board of his decision to step down with immediate effect. Haber is also one of Plus500’s co-founders and former CEO of the company. The Israeli-based broker noted that Haber will continue to provide consultancy services to the company in the future.

The multibank FX streaming aggregation and a matching service provider FXSpotStream announced its December volumes with a slight fall compared to November and October. The company reported an ADV of $42.787 billion for the last month of 2020. FXSpotStream’s ADV MoM fell 3.86%, compared to November 2020.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) announced that its Chief Executive Charles Li has retired and Calvin Tai took his place as Interim Chief Executive on 1 January 2021. The directorial change was initially announced in September 2020.

LeapRate Analyst

Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
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