FX week in review: Trading 212 capital raise, Libertex suspended, Usain Bolt, executive moves

The first week of August – normally a “slow time” as folks head on vacation – brought record traffic to FNG as we exclusively broke every major FX industry news story (what were the “other guys” posting about, exactly????). And there were plenty!

Trading 212 getting a major capital injection. (Equiti Capital too).

Libertex being suspended by CySEC. (And BDSwiss banned by the FCA in the UK).

Valutrades’ COO leaving. (Blackwell Global’s COO too).

LMAX Global’s head of Asia leaving.

Management turnover at ADSS.

Capex.com adding a UAE COO.

FXCubic naming a Middle East head.

You read about it all exclusively (or first, before being copied elsewhere) at FNG.

Some of the most read and commented-on FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:

Libertex parent Indication Investments has CySEC license suspended. Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has issued a Board Decision announcing the suspension of the CIF license of Indication Investments Ltd. Indication Investments operates the Libertex Retail FX and CFDs brand, at website libertex.com. Libertex / Indication Investments was fined €160,000 last year by CySEC fine for issues that included not executing certain client orders on terms most favorable to the client, and offering more than the maximum 30x leverage allowed to retail traders. The current alleged violations (see more on that below) are of a more serious nature against Libertex, which remains the Official Trading Partner of EPL team Tottenham Hotspur.

FCA stops BDSwiss offering CFDs to UK customers. The UK financial regulator The FCA has announced that it has acted to stop Cyprus based firm BDSwiss Holding Plc, and other members of the BDSwiss Group, from offering high risk contracts for differences (CFDs) to UK investors. The BDSwiss Group trades using the brands BDSwiss, Swissmarkets and BDS Trading. The regulator said that BDSwiss Group used the fact that one of its firms was regulated in the UK to convey legitimacy on the group as a whole. However, 99% of UK consumers taken on by the group traded through the group’s overseas entities.

AvaTrade signs Usain Bolt as Brand Ambassador. The retail forex broker love affair with sports sponsorships and brand ambassadors continues, with the latest firm jumping on board being Dublin based AvaTrade, which has introduced legendary sprinter Usain Bolt as its new Brand Ambassador. This is actually not Usain Bolt’s first foray into retail forex – while he was still active as a runner he was named a Brand Ambassador for Cyprus based broker XM.com in 2016. The AvaTrade announcement was made, not surprisingly, during the Olympics and on the day after the men’s 100 meter race, one of the Olympics’ key events and the race in which Mr. Bolt – still the world’s fastest man and 100m record holder – starred for many years.

Exclusive: Trading 212 shareholders pump in another £13.75 million of capital. FNG Exclusive… It looks like big things are planned at Trading 212. FNG has learned via regulatory filings that FCA regulated online brokerage firm Trading 212 UK Limited has raised an additional £13.75 million (USD $19 million) of capital from its controlling shareholders Borislav Nedialkov and Ivan Ashminov. The latest capital raise, made at the end of July, comes after Mr. Nedialkov and Mr. Ashminov put £6.0 million of additional money into Trading 212 at the end of May – as was also reported exclusively at FNG – bringing the total amount raised this year by Trading 212 to £19.75 million (USD $27.5 million).

Playtech responds to Gopher: no other offers for Finalto. More drama this week in the ongoing takeover battle for Playtech’s Financials division brands, Finalto and Markets.com. The war of words (and for the minds and votes of Playtech shareholders) between Playtech and Gopher Investments is continuing. After Gopher Investments – controlled by Hong Kong based Jonathan Bond’s TT Bond Partners – sent out a strongly worded letter yesterday encouraging Playtech shareholders to vote “No” on August 18 to the sale of Finalto and Markets.com to an (admittedly) inferior bid from Israeli businessman Zvika Barinboim, Playtech has now responded with its own brief statement.

Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:

Tarek Nabil, Capex.com