FXCM, Oanda and Forex.com – the ‘big three’ – now account for 63% of US Retail FX assets, and rising.

U.S. Retail Forex client asset data for April is now out, courtesy of the CFTC, and it shows a few interesting things — all leading to the conclusion that the US Retail FX industry is becoming increasingly concentrated — and the US consumer is seeing less and less choice. Fairly difficult and expensive-to-follow US FX regulations have priced all but the largest US FX brokers out of the market.

For some of the specifics see data table below. Overall, US retail FX clients assets were flat and unchanged from March at $648 million — not really a big deal. But…

• ALL of the smaller regulated US FX brokers saw a drop in assets.
• FXCM had the largest asset gain ($4.9 million for the month), and has nearly overtaken Oanda in the #1 spot.

We expect to see more of the few remaining medium and small US brokers leave the US in the coming months, or just convert their operations into Introducing Brokers of the few larger firms — following in the footsteps of GFT and FX Solutions, both of whom recently sold their US businesses to Gain Capital.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.