OANDA Securities, the Japanese subsidiary of longstanding online forex and CFD brokerage company, OANDA Corporation, stopped new downloads of the desktop version of its fxTrade trading platform on Friday. In addition, the subsidiary announced a change in the margin rate of the USD/JPY currency pair for corporate accounts.

"From now on, fxTrade can be used in a web browser, mobile app and tablet versions,” the broker said in an update published in Japanese on its website. Furthermore, OANDA Securities noted that its customers who have already downloaded the desktop version of fxTrade can continue to use the software.

Additionally, the broker noted that its traders can still access fxTrade from the desktop version of TradingView, a charting, analytics and social networking platform that was integrated into fxTrade in March 2016.

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OANDA Changes USD/JPY Margin Rate

Meanwhile, the OANDA subsidiary put the new margin rate of the USD/JPY currency pair at 2.2%, which is a 0.2% increase from the previous 2%. This new rate will be implemented starting January 30, 2023, the broker said, adding that the change only affects corporate accounts on its Tokyo and New York servers.

"Customers holding positions in the corresponding currency pair will be subject to a loss cut due to changes in the margin rate if they continue to hold positions after the market closes on January 27, 2023. We recommend that you reduce your position in advance or have enough money in your account," OANDA Securities said in a different update also published on Friday.

The change in the USD/JPY margin rate comes over one month after the Japanese subsidiary increased the margin rates for the currency pairs NZD/USD and AUD/USD to 3%. Both currency pairs previously had a 2% margin rate. Again, the rate increase only applied to corporate accounts on the Tokyo and New York servers.

In addition, OANDA Securities last year enforced new margin rates for the USD/SEK, GBP/USD and GBP/JPY currency pairs. Like the others, these rate increases were only applied to corporate accounts on the broker’s Tokyo and New York servers.

In a different development, in October last year, OANDA unveiled a new brand identity and launched crypto trading in the US in partnership with Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure company.