It was a very mixed bag of FX industry news this past week, with some key management replacement moves at some key FX brokers, a rare ASIC license granted to an EU/UK broker, and some broker results sprinkled in for good measure.
Who is in, and who is out, as CEO of MENA-focused Retail FX broker Amana Capital?
Who replaced Mukid Chowdhury, who moved to become CEO of Trading 212, as CFO of Tickmill?
What new multi-year low was established by Saxo Bank?
What deal was struck between IG’s IG Prime unit and Centroid Solutions?
Answers to these questions and a whole lot more appeared first or exclusively this week at FNG. Some of the most read and commented-on FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:
Muhammad Rasoul replaces Ahmad Khatib as Amana Capital CEO. MENA region focused Retail FX and CFDs broker Amana Capital has announced the appointment of industry veteran Muhammad Rasoul as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Rasoul takes over from Ahmad Khatib, who will be stepping down for what the company calls personal reasons after spearheading the organization’s operations and growth since Amana Capital’s founding in 2010. Mr. Khatib will stay on in a strategic advisory role to ensure a seamless leadership transition and support Amana Capital in its growth. Muhammad Rasoul was a longtime Gain Capital senior executive who in 2016 to co-found Alpha Capital Markets (ACM).
Capital.com expands to Australia with ASIC license. Reported First at FNG… London and Cyprus based Retail FX and CFDs broker Capital.com has announced that it has received a license to operate in Australia, and has opened an office in Melbourne. The platform will operate with an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license, granted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Capital.com currently has entities that are regulated by either the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Europe or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Peter Richards, who has extensive experience in the Australian online trading and investment space, has been appointed Director of Capital Com Australia Limited. He will help drive the company’s growth as well as oversee recruitment.
Saxo Bank FX volumes drop below $100B for first time in 5+ years. Copenhagen based Retail FX and CFDs broker Saxo Bank has released its client trading volumes for the month of August 2021, with the company reporting its slowest month for its core FX pairs product since at least 2015. (Saxo has data dating back to 2016 available). Saxo’s $96.8 billion of FX trading volumes in August was the first time activity dropped below the $100 billion level over that span of 5+ years. The previous low for Saxo was $104.3 billion in May 2021. In 2020 Saxo averaged $146 billion in monthly FX trading volumes, which has dropped to $119 billion so far in 2021.
IG Prime partners with Centroid Solutions for broker liquidity. IG Prime, the institutional prime brokerage service arm of leading London based online broker IG (LON:IGG), and FX broker tech provider Centroid Solutions have announced a strategic collaboration which the parties said will allow a wide scope of brokers to benefit from enhanced connectivity and liquidity services. Due to its strong relationships with global tier one banks, IG Prime offers deep liquidity and real-time pricing to institutional clients worldwide.
Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:
Derek Wilks