Broker Updates on Nov. 2-8

Vietnam

Regulatory Framework

1. The Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) announced its plan for a new regulatory framework that makes it mandatory for all companies that offer crypto trading to apply for a license.

Fraud Charge

2. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged seven US citizens with running a scam operation known as “boiler room”, as well as operating with securities without the proper license - that for a broker dealer. These seven had been operating the scheme for at least four years - from 2015 to 2019.

Stock Trading Permissions

3. ESMA creates permissions for EU companies to trade stocks within post-Brexit UK. The UK‘s unprecedented secession from the European union is nearing completion, with the end of the eleven-month transition period coming up this December. Both the Union and the UK’s financial oversight bodies – the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) respectively, have been drafting legislation in preparation for the finalization of the divorce between the two parties.

Retail FX Deposits

4. IG US retail FX deposits rise 13% in September 2020. IG US is taking market share away from big players, but it still has a long way to challenge the likes of GAIN Capital and Oanda.

Indonesia

ThawedBusiness Activities

5. On Tuesday, 27 October 2020, Bappebti has made disbursement for the freezing of business activities as a futures broker in the name of PT Real Time Futures, based on the Decree of the Head of CoFTRA Number 09 of 2020.

RenownedBroker

6. FBS, a world-renowned international broker, won awards for The Most Reliable Forex Broker MENA 2020, The Most Reliable Latin America Forex Broker 2020, and The Most Reliable Forex Broker Asia 2020. This proud predicate was given by The Europe magazine, in an event called the Banking Finance Awards, as recognition of top performers in the business community. Over the past decade, FBS has won the trust of more than 15 million traders worldwide, many of whom come from Latin America, Asia, and MENA regions.

Increased Customer Deposits

7. IG US was the best performer among retail FX brokers in the United States, after racking up $21.7 million in customer deposits in September 2020. This figure is higher by 13 percent from the previous month and was also six times bigger than the $3.5 million it collected when the company re-launched its operations a year ago.

Thailand

Crypto Exchange Regulations

8. Hong Kong to mandate crypto exchange regulations - This move is an extension of the crypto regulatory framework introduced by the Hong Kong regulator in November last year. However, those rules are kept as ‘opt-in’, meaning it is the choice of digital asset exchanges to apply for a license and follow the regulations.

Lower Revenue

9. Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ:IBKR) saw 1.762 million daily average revenue trades, or DARTS, in October 2020 compared to 1.953 million transactions in the prior month.

Japan

Transaction Data

10. The Financial Futures Association of Japan released monthly Retail Over-The-Counter Binary Options Report of September 2020. These data are the monthly Retail OTC Currency Binary Option transactions summaries reported by FFAJ members.

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Business Expansion

11. A well-known investor in the CIS, Viktor Remshe, who now lives in the United States, acquired a dealer Lime through his company Score Priority Corp. Under the transaction, the buyer received the technical base, the rights to the brand, the staff and the client base.

New Forex Brand

12. The Cypriot company Leverate is launching another Forex brand in Belarus. Forex broker Bein Markets has been added under the current license of Kimbo LLC, which provides services through a separate website https://bein-markets.by/ru/