During the passing week the top news in the international online trading industry came from different regions of the world including new business deals in China and Latin America. We also got sharper responses to the proposed new limitations from the UK FCA that made headlines the previous week.
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China
On Monday we announced that Jack C. Liu, Chief Strategy Officer at OKCoin, China’s largest digital currency (Bitcoin) exchange, is one of the first speakers revealed for the iFX EXPO Asia 2017. This gives all the many financial executives that take part in the event a chance to learn how Blockchain and bitcoin is changing the business in China and around the world.
An example of how Chinese financial firms from various fields are important potential partners for FX firms was seen this week when eToro announced that it the signing of a strategic partnership with Lufax Holding Ltd, China’s largest internet finance company and the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending provider.
MetaQuotes Hikes MT4 Support Fees
On Tuesday we exclusively revealed that MetaQuotes has started informing its broker clients that it intends to increase support fees for the company’s most popular product, Metatrader 4. The hike in monthly prices that the company is charging its clients is by about a third, according to official documents seen by Finance Magnates.
The price hike is going to become effective from the 1st of January 2017 with sources reporting that the hike is applicable only to the MT4 family of products. Earlier this year, the developer of the software MetaQuotes outlined during the Finance Magnates London Summit that a transition to the company’s MetaTrader 5 platform is on the way.
Latin America
On Wednesday we reported that trading platform developer Protrader PFSOFT has established a presence in Brazil and opened an office in Sao Paulo. CEO of PFSOFT LATAM, Christiano Ricardo Santos, said: “The most recent result of PFSOFT LATAM’s presence in Brazil was acquisition of two brokers as regional partners. CM Capital Markets CCTVM and Rico CTVM S.A. are going to provide access to equities, options and futures listed on BM&F Bovespa through Protrader solution.”
It was also announced this week that Saxo Bank has signed an agreement with a local white label to sell its Uruguayan assets. The name of the buyer is DIF Broker, a company that is currently a white label partner of the Danish brokerage. Saxo Bank’s Uruguayan subsidiary, named Saxo Capital Markets Agente de Valores, has already been approved by local regulatory authorities.
FCA Backlash
On Thursday it was reported that Peter Hetheringon, the CEO of IG, Britain’s biggest player in spread betting sector with a 40 percent share of the market, has criticised the regulator for the turmoil it sparked. Britain’s watchdog shocked the sector by unveiling a raft of crippling measures to reform the CFDs trading market.
Earlier it was reported that the board of CMC Markets, headed by Peter Cruddas, has been contemplating a number of job cuts and a potential move away from London due to the proposed FCA rules. A move of the firm’s London headquarters would mean the loss of about 300 jobs in the City.
FX Leaving London?
Losing 300 jobs is perhaps not a big concern for a financial center as big as London but the online retail sector is just a small part of the business that the City is about to lose. On Friday it was reported that Japanese financial institutions are looking to move their operations out of London as Brexit looms.
We also learned that daily FX trading volumes out of London have shrunk by 12% in the past three years to $2.41 trillion, as the Bank of England said in its latest triennial report on the FX market. Although the market shrinkage was a particular blow for London, the city remains the world’s biggest currency trading hub, responsible for 37 percent of global volumes. However, London’s lead in the global currencies trading was eroded to the aforementioned figure from a nearly 41 percent share in 2013.
