As the first week of an already-tumultuous March draws to a close, let's take a look back at the news stories that dominated the worlds of forex, fintech, and crypto in our best of the week segment.
UK Sanctions 5 Russian Banks and Three High-Net Worth Individuals
As Finance Magnates reported on Tuesday, as a response to Russia sending troops to Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, the UK announced sanctions against 5 Russian banks and 3 high-net worth individuals.
The Russian banks are Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank. The high-net worth individuals are Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg.
Read more on the UK Russian sanctions here.
EU Bans 7 Russian Banks from Accessing SWIFT
With global sanctions ramping up against Russia, the European Union confirmed on Wednesday that it will exclude seven Russian commercial banks from accessing the international banking messaging system, SWIFT.
These blacklisted banks are Russia’s second-largest lender VTB, Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya, Sovcombank and VEB. Access to SWIFT for these seven banks will be terminated on March 12, giving them ten days to settle all pending SWIFT transactions.
Read more on the EU Russian Bank Ban here.
PayPal Suspends Services in Russia
Sanctions against Russia continued to ramp up over the weekend. PayPal confirmed on Saturday that it has suspended its services in Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine. Dan Schulman, the President and Chief Executive Officer of PayPal, said that the tragedy in Ukraine has been devastating for all.
Read more on PayPal's suspension of services in Russia here.
Analysis: German Active FX/CFD Retail Traders Base Grew 58% Last Year
The Finance Magnates Intelligence team delved deep into the German FX/CFD Retail Trading scene.
With a look at how many active traders and what they are trading (hint: crypto trading is on the increase), we show why brokers are keen to tap into the vibrant German trading market.
Read more on the German active FX/CFD retail trading scene here.
German Broker flatexDEGIRO Posts 60% Rise in 2021 Revenue
Staying in Germany, flatexDEGIRO (ETR: FTK), a German retail online broker, published its financials for 2021, reporting a solid jump across all key financial metrics.
The yearly revenue of the company jumped 60 percent to reach €418 million, making it a record year for the broker.
Additionally, it performed well in the last quarter of the year generating €103 million in revenue, which is 17 percent higher than the previous quarter. In addition, the monetization with revenues per trade improved to €5.22, compared to Q3’s €4.83.
Read more on the flatexDEGIRO's (ETR: FTK) 2021 financials here.
FXSpotStream February ADV Hits Record, Jumps 19% MoM
FXSpotStream LLC, a leading provider of multibank FX aggregation service for spot FX trading, has published its key monthly trading metrics for February 2022. The average daily trading volume (ADV) on the platform touched a record $63.1 billion.
The ADV for last month increased by more than 19.2 percent month-over-month and 27.3 percent year-over-year. February had only 20 trading days, making it one of the shortest months in the trading market.
The total trading volume for the month came in at $1.26 trillion, which is the second-highest monthly volume recorded by the company in its operational history.
Read more about the record FXSpotStream February ADV here.
IS Prime Reveals FY21 Financials, Revenue Hits £37.9 Million
IS Prime, which is a part of the ISAM Capital Markets Group, published its financials for the year ending on June 30, 2021, reporting an annual turnover of £37.9 million. Though the figure improved from £36.1 million, the company changed its financial reporting cycle ending on March to June.
In addition, the operating profit took a hit as it came in at £10.1 million, which is down from the previous year’s £17.6 million. The company cited increased expenditure on its people, technology and a larger London office behind the sump in profit.
Read more on the IS Prime FY21 Financials here.
SEC Investigates NFTs Market over Concerns of Illegal Offerings
As Finance Magnates covered on Thursday, the SEC is investigating the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market to determine if some of these NFTs can be categorized as securities.
The regulator is particularly focused on fractional NFTs, pieces of which can be sold separately to multiple investors. These units can be easily bought and sold in the secondary markets for earning profits.
In addition, the report outlined that the SEC attorneys have been sending subpoenas to NFT creators and various crypto exchanges requesting more information for months now. However, the regulator has not confirmed anything officially yet.
Read more on the SEC investigation into NFTs here.
CMC Markets Plans to Launch £30M Share Buyback Program
London-headquartered CMC Markets (LON: CMCX) announced on Wednesday that it is intending to launch a share buyback program. It plans on allocating £30 million for the program, but the decision is now pending regulatory approval.
“In light of the Company's robust capital position and having considered the ongoing investment in the business, the Board has decided to return excess capital to shareholders via the repurchase of ordinary shares,” CMC stated in the announcement.
Read more on the CMC Markets Share Buyback Plan here.
