It was another (very) busy news week for Forex brokers, and a lot of it was reported exclusively at LeapRate.
But before we get to the news, some news about LeapRate. We’re pleased to report that SimilarWeb’s February numbers are out, and we were informed that LeapRate had one of the largest leaps (no pun intended 🙂 ) of any of the major websites (sub 250,000) covered by SimilarWeb. With SimilarWeb reporting improvement for LeapRate of more than 100,000 ranking spots over January, and a jump of over 40% in our hits to over 116,000 unique visits a month, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for helping us become the clear #1 trusted source for Forex Industry news and info.
We appreciate your trust, we value your support, and we’ll work hard to keep bringing you all the behind-the-scenes stories as they unfold.
As far as the past week goes, FXCM made it into the spotlight a number of times. Some of our most viewed and shared posts this past week included:
FXCM drops ATC Brokers as an IB. Continuing our exclusive coverage of the Chapter 11 filing of NFA-regulated FX introducing broker ATC Brokers and its parent company Avail Trading Corp., LeapRate has learned that FXCM has now dropped ATC as a referring broker, effective March 18. FXCM sent out emails on Tuesday (see a copy below) to all clients which had been referred by ATC announcing the move and providing instructions.
FXCM to change its name, shares tumble as Leucadia deal restructuring disappoints shareholders. As reported at LeapRate, after US markets closed Thursday at 21:00 GMT, FXCM released its February FX trading volumes (not bad, all-important retail volumes remain above $300 billion), Q4 and full year financial results (again not bad, Q4 revenues were actually up a bit over Q3), and details of its restructured deal with Leucadia. After the markets had a moment to digest all that news, FXCM shares tumbled in after hours trading by about 24% (after falling 4% during Thursday’s trading session), settling at $11.00 after closing regular trading at $14.46. So what disappointed investors?
Why your Forex brokerage needs to automate onboarding.
Chilean FX broker IM Forex shut down as police investigate scam allegations.
Cyprus bailout exit: What does it mean for Forex brokers?
SEC impersonators scam fees from ex Banc de Binary clients due an $11 million settlement. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today confirmed LeapRate’s earlier report (from February 26) that it had reached an $11 million settlement with unregistered binary options broker Banc de Binary. However the SEC noted that some impersonators claiming to be affiliated with the SEC or other government agencies have recently been contacting harmed investors in the Banc de Binary case, asking them to pay a fee to facilitate their settlement payout.