Hong Kong’s SFC is considering changes to its Investor Compensation Regime

Posted on by bar

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced that it has launched a two-month consultation on proposed changes to the Investor Compensation Regime (ICR).

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), is the independent statutory body charged with regulating the securities and futures markets in Hong Kong.

The ICR was first presented in 2003 in conjunction with the Securities and Futures Ordinance, and it gives the opportunity for retail investors to get the compensation from defaulting, non-compliant companies. These financial companies must be authorized or licensed in Hong Kong, and the investor should be trading in exchange-traded products.

The main points of the proposal are about increasing the compensation limit from $150,000 to $500,000 per investor. It also states that the non-mainland-based investors will still be able to get the compensation if they trade under the Stock Connect schemes.

The reason for this big leap is the rise in client assets. As the Hong Kong’s securities and futures markets has been growing and developing, so the value of the assets has also grown  significantly. The information about the total value of client assets held with the intermediaries in the period from 2014 and 2017 shows that the value has increased more than twice, from $598 billion to $918 billion.

This proposal would give the opportunity for the SFC to provide compensation payments in specific circumstances of the delays or any kinds of concerns. One of the goals of the regulator is to bring the ICR into the international level, as the compensation offered by ICR is substantially smaller than similar offers in the EU, UK, USA, and Canada.

Mastercard Puts Unregulated Forex, CFDs and Binary Brokers under “high-risk security” category

Posted on by bar

One more opportunity for unregulated forex and CFDs brokers has been dismissed. Mastercard company has sent an email informing payment processors about the changes that will be applied to some of the trading companies.

Mastercard has mentioned forex cryptocurrency options, ICOs, CFDs and binary options under the mark "high risk". It means that any business that operates on financial market without a license or not being authorised will categorized with the highest risk and payment processors will pay a special attention to this category.

All of the mentioned brokers will be placed under the category of high-risk securities merchants and their transactions will categorized into a particular group under particular code. This code will mean that the chargebacks will still be possible within 540 days after the transaction.

These new changes are expected to put into action from the 12th of October, which means that the payment processors will have around half a year to revise this new set of rules and guidelines. Each payment processor who is processing the transaction from the high-risk security merchant will have to show the proofs from the legal authority. Such proof can be a license that was issued by the regulator agency or official authority and also the proof that the trading platform is also licensed. Payment processors will have to terminate the high-risk security transactions till the the needed documents are presented.

These new standards will affect all transactions globally, processed via Mastercard and its services Maestro and Debit Mastercard.

UK FCA warns against FX broker CFD Stocks

Posted on by bar

A few days ago UK financial regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued its another warning against an unregulated trading company that tries to reach out British investors and also EU residents as the websites gives you a choice among English, German, French and Spanish languages.

This warning concerns the company CFD Stocks (www.cfdstocks.com/).

The company CFD Stocks is not authorized by the FCA and also it carries on regulated activities that require authorization.

CFD Stocks is owned by Pacific Sunrise UK Ltd. CFD broker provides trading with currencies, commodities and other assets. It allegedly is based in Britain.But if you read their terms and conditions it turns out that the company is registered in Saint Vincent, which means it is one more offshore company with no license and fraudulent activity.

There are also a lot of negative reviews about this company, where investors state that they are not able to withdraw their money for months and that the company representatives are always asking for more.

It is very important to be aware and stay alert if you're dealing with financial trading services. The best options is to go for the licensed and authorised companies under the regulators (FCA, ASIC, CySec).

Sucden Financial Record Revenues and £10.9m Net Profit for 2017

Posted on by bar

Sucden Financial has revealed its financial report with the results for 2017, calling attention to company's record revenues and profits made that year. The posted net profit of the company for the 2017 is £10.9 million, which is 30% more than it was in 2016.

Sucden Financial is one of the main brokerage companies based in London, UK. The company is licensed by FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and is a subsidiary of a Sucres & Denrées S.A, French commodities trading company based in Paris.

Sucden Financial is a partner of the London Metal Exchange and is also a member of the Intercontinental Exchange. The company offers execution and clearing services for exchange trading assets, CFDs and Over-The-Counter (OTC) FX. Sucden Financial is also a forex market operator for both retail and corporate forex clients.

The CEO of the Sucden FInancial commented on the posted results that the report shows company's stability and the potency of their business. The profits and revenues show that the large investments benefit the company and help it to grow and increase in all its areas and services. The company has big plans for its further growth and wants to develop in the area of foreign exchange, equities and bonds.

During 2017 Sucden Financial has been developed its holdings and funds. The brokerage gave the opportunity to access the major ECNs for trading foreign exchange 2017. The same year the company has added FX options to its portfolio.

NinjaTrader added City Index and OANDA to its brokerages list

Posted on by bar

NinjaTrader LLC has added two new forex brokerage service providers, OANDA and City Index, and gave the opportunity for its forex trading clients to diversify their investments. These two forex brokerages are now available on the NinjaTrader platform.

NinjaTrader LLC. is a software development company which owns and supports all related technology, including the NinjaTrader trading platform. It was established in 2003 and has quickly grown into a business that supports more than 60 thousands traders all over the world and provides high-quality technology along with the outstanding support. It provides a platform for manual and automated traders of equities, forex markets and futures. The company officially works as an introducing broker for multiple brokerages worldwide and is well-known for offering free analytics, system development and charting. NinjaTrader also provides the opportunity to save investments through reduced commissions.

From now on, the users of the NinjaTrader will have even more choices of the brokers who offer forex trading. The US-based clients now can choose OANDA as a Forex Dealer Member option, joined FOREX.com, while City Index (a subsidiary of Gain Capital Holdings Inc.) joined FXCM also as a FDM option for the traders outside the United States.

With faster trades execution and low spreads across all the available forex brokerages, NinjaTrader users get suitable prices with a good quality tech support and functional platform. These users will have an access to more forex trading companies right from the website after a simple online registration.

Newly added OANDA and City Index can already be used by both new NinjaTrader clients and existing clients who have their trading accounts set up.

CVC Capital Partners Asia Fund acquired retail trading platform OANDA

Posted on by bar

Private capital firm CVC Capital Partners has acquired a retail FX broker OANDA, after partnering with Blackstone and acquisition of one of the online payments specialists Paysafe. No price or other financial terms of this deal were disclosed

OANDA was established in 1995 and is known as one of the global online trading platforms, analytics and currency data companies. OANDA’s remarkable technology, new products and execution across a broad range of assets, gives the opportunity to trade currencies, commodities, indices, metals and treasuries.

The most significant move of the company was launching its online foreign exchange trading platform 'fx trade' in 2001. This option enabled professional and retail clients to trade FX.

Even after becoming owned by the new ownership, the private investment group CVC Asia Fund IV, the company will still be led by its Chief Executive Officer, Vatsa Narasimha, who was the key person in the investment from CVC Asia Fund IV and played an important role in developing the business since 2015.

Acquisition of the OANDA company means the taking on the years of successful trading experience. The company has been the ultimate source of FX rates for leading global corporations such as Google, Samsung and Tesla.

In his comments about this deal Vatsa Narasimha said that he is excited by the change of the ownership and the further OANDA's development. OANDA is a consumer-oriented company and those who manage it have a promising strategic and product concept to drive value over the next few years and to focus on its growth and development.

Saxo Bank Reports The Fall of The Trading Volumes in April

Posted on by bar

Saxo Bank's FX average volumes have fallen to $11.7 billion, which is more than 20%. It is the second month in a row that the volumes are falling and also the lowest since December 2017.

Saxo Bank is a fully licensed and regulated Danish bank, based in Copenhagen. Its online trading platform enables the customers to invest across global financial markets. Also the bank is a multi-asset and retail FX brokerage.

The broker's monthly report for April shows that it failed to overtake March volumes which were relatively low, decreasing the month-over-month metrics in all business sectors.

In March, company's FX trading volume dropped by 26 % to $317.2 billion.  The average daily volume of the trading activity was receded to only $14.4 billion, compare to $21.7 billion in February this year.

During April 2018, Saxo Bank's FX average daily volumes dropped to $11.7 billion, which is the lowest since December. Looking on the yearly timeframe, this number is still best in comparison to April 2017, which was $10.3 billion.

Last week, Saxo Bank signed an important partnership deal with tech-giant Microsoft. The brokerage will be responsible for the whole banking platform on the Microsoft Cloud.

Although the metrics are a bit down, Saxo Bank is making significant moves in the direction of the growth and development. First of all, it relocated the whole banking platform to Microsoft Cloud. Secondly, the new ownership group based in China is making its first steps in paring assets and leaving the South Africa FX market, so it can expand more in China by partnering with Italian Banca Generali and Chinese SINA Corp’s Valuable.

Investoo Group Announced about getting FCA Registration

Posted on by bar

One of the largest FX and crypto affiliates Investoo Group (https://www.investoogroup.com/) has announced the registration by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, as an Appointed Representative of Met Facilities LLP. It is now authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under registration number 587084.

Met Facilities provides a regulatory hosting solutions within its platform for funds, start-ups and financial services companies. The company is an expert in a vast array of financial services activities. The company provides regulatory permissions and carries responsibility for training and risk monitoring at companies such as Investoo. Met Facilities is suitable for brokers, asset managers, investment advisers, exchange platforms and corporate financiers.  

Getting the FCA registration gives Investoo permission to assist clients in relation to buying, selling, subscribing for or underwriting the investments appointed for the purposes of regulation of the Financial Services, as being securities or relevant investments.

Based in London, Investoo Group has rapidly became one of the biggest FX and cryptocurrency affiliates and lead generators. The company has been working on establishing the FX and crypto affiliate space. It has also secured £7.5 million credit line in 2017. During the first year of its operation, the company has grown from 1 to 50 employees.

The chiefs of the affiliate firm believe that this partnership will help Investoo to grow in the financial markets and become the leader in lead generation business. This opportunity enables the company to encourage responsible investing and educate consumers on all the possible risks within the industry.

ASIC suspends Halifax Investment Services AFS license

Posted on by bar

Regulator ASIC

ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services (AFS) license held by Halifax Investment Services Pty Ltd (Halifax). The license was suspended for a year until January 10, 2020. It happened only six weeks after this retail FX brokerage went into insolvency administration on November 23, 2018.
As we have previously reported, going into administration followed the appointment of Morgan Kelly, Stewart McCallum, and Phil Quinlan, of Ferrier Hodgson, as joint voluntary administrators of Halifax. The website of the Halifax Investment Services was closed for “maintenance” and the investments of the clients have been frozen. The administrators stated that after license suspension, the investors' loss may be between AUD 10-20 million.

Halifax Review
Halifax Investment Services Pty Ltd (Halifax), was a financial services licensee headquartered in Sydney with a partially-owned subsidiary in Auckland, New Zealand. It has been providing various financial products in a range of asset classes, including stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange, and contracts for difference; and trade finance and currency exchange services.
The terms of the AFS licence suspension allow the Halifax AFS licence to continue in effect for the following purposes only: to ensure that clients of Halifax continue to have access to an external dispute resolution scheme; to ensure that Halifax continues to be required to have arrangements for compensating retail clients, including the holding of professional indemnity insurance cover; and to allow for the termination of existing arrangements with clients of Halifax.