Forex Industry Week Review: Holland FX ad ban, Pepperstone FCA license, DailyFX sold, Israel licenses granted, and lots more…

It was a very busy Forex Industry News week at LeapRate, with a little of everything – public offerings, M&A, regulatory moves, new licenses, executive moves, financial results…. and of course, our usual dose of behind-the-scenes exclusive coverage you’ll see only at LeapRate.

Our most popular guest posts this week were:

Some of our most popular, shared and commented-on posts in what was a very busy week at LeapRate included:

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pepperstone-uk-fcaPepperstone receives FCA license, set to expand in the UKLeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that ASIC regulated, Melbourne, Australia based retail forex broker Pepperstone is getting set to announce a major expansion in the UK and Europe. Pepperstone has quietly acquired the UK shell company of a planned retail forex brokerage which never got off the ground, and is in process of finalizing certain approvals before a formal UK launch.

Holland to join France in banning Forex, CFD and Binary Options advertising. Word has hit that Holland’s financial regulator AFM is working with the country’s Ministry of Finance to enact a France-like ban on advertising all leveraged (or what they call “toxic”) financial products targeting retail consumers – including Forex, CFDs and Binary Options.

dailyfx-soldIG Group buys Forex research site DailyFX from FXCM. Some M&A deals make a lot of sense. And this looks like one of them. In one fell swoop, IG takes a giant leap forward in solidifying its position as the UK’s #1 online trading firm, while expanding its foothold with retail traders abroad. FXCM takes a big step in paying back its very onerous and expensive loan from Leucadia. So how much did IG pay FXCM for DailyFX? How much up front? Will FXCM still retain a connection with DailyFX? How about all the US visitors (about 20% of DailyFX overall), where IG isn’t licensed?

FXCM, AvaTrade and Plus500 among first recipients of Israel Forex Broker license. Following several months of waiting and speculation, Israeli financial regulator ISA has finally handed out the first forex Dealer licenses to five Retail Forex brokers, including FXCM, AvaTrade and Plus500. A number of brokers have dropped out of the running for a license along the way, beleiveing that the fairly restrictive conditions imposed on traders in Israel just don’t make it worthwhile. Which other brokers got the license? And what exactly are the ‘restrictive’ conditions imposed by the new Israel Forex Law?

Plus500 founders cash in $131 million in stock, shares down 16%. Further to our report yesterday that the founding group of retail Forex and CFD broker Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) had filed plans to sell about 40% of their collective holdings in Plus500, the company has announced that the placement has concluded but at a significant discount to Plus500’s closing share price from last night.

FxPro triples volumes in its UK arm to $63.5 billion in 2015.

AxiTrader hires Oanda and CMC Markets veteran Louis Cooper as Global Head of Retail Services.

 

 

 

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