Articles by FX Markets Staff
Wooden Nickel scammers fined $25 million
NEW YORK – Individuals and companies involved in the Operation Wooden Nickel trading scam have been ordered to pay some $25 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
August 2006 - FXall to launch anonymous platform
NEW YORK – It emerged in August that FXall was looking to launch an anonymous trading platform to target both buy-side and sell-side market participants. The multi-bank portal sent details to banks outlining how the new platform was set to work.
May 2006 - CLS cuts prices for low-value, high-freq trades
LONDON – CLS Bank has introduced a new pricing structure that sees charges slashed for settling low-value payment instructions, as it seeks to attract low-value high-frequency trading business.
February 2006 - Refco saga continues with veto of FXCM deal
NEW YORK – Refco creditors vetoed a deal that would have seen the remains of the unregulated business sold to Forex Capital Management.
July 2006 - FXall stake sold to TCV for $77.5 million
NEW YORK – FXall sold a minority stake worth $77.5 million to private equity firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).
October 2006 - Flextrade to launch block trading platform
CHICAGO, NEW YORK AND LONDON – October was a month where new players looked to make their mark on the industry. Reuters CME joint venture FXMarketSpace announced 20 more banks signed to be clearing prime brokers while it emerged trading technology vendor…
Bank of Thailand backtracks on reserve requirements
BANGKOK – The Bank of Thailand (BOT) went back on regulations introduced on December 18, by removing the 30% foreign currency reserve requirements on current account activities and equity investments.
March 2006 - FXCM abandons Refco negotiations
NEW YORK – Forex Capital Markets (FXCM) abandoned negotiations with Refco creditors to acquire the assets of the defunct brokerage's unregulated currency trading operation.
January 2006 - Deutsche Bank cuts out $1 trillion
LONDON – Deutsche Bank said it had cut out $1 trillion of what it described as 'predatory trades' in 2005, as it repositioned its business to make it more profitable.
February 2006 - BoA builds algorithmic forex capabilities
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – Bank of America (BoA) took a major step towards building up its algorithmic trading capabilities in the FX space, with the acquisition of algorithmic-driven pricing and trading specialist, Financial Labs.
September 2006 - Trading for CME and Reuters disrupted
CHICAGO – September showed the frailty of trading systems with both CME and Reuters seeing disruption to their platforms.
January 2006 - Acquisitions in e-FX take precedence
LONDON – The year started with a bang with two high-profile acquisitions in the electronic trading space.
June 2006 - Merrill Lynch departures continue
LONDON – The departures from Merrill Lynch continued, with a quartet of staff leaving in the wake of restructuring at the investment bank.
April 2006 - Icap purchase of EBS completed for $775m
LONDON – In mid-April, Interdealer broker Icap agreed to a deal that saw it acquire electronic forex heavyweight EBS. The deal saw Icap pay $775 million for EBS Group, with a share alternative option for EBS shareholders to switch a third of their cash…
August 2006 - First renminbi interest rate swap
HONG KONG – HSBC and Standard Chartered traded the first non-deliverable renminbi (RMB) interest rate swaps deals in August, marking a significant step in the development of the local currency derivatives market.
May 2006 - Currenex launches CX SmartOrder
LONDON – Currenex an-nounced plans to move into algorithmic trading with the launch of CX SmartOrder, a platform that enables customers to use a number of standard models or to create their own.
September 2006 - Thomson expands FX offering with Tullett
LONDON – Thomson Financial introduced foreign exchange and money market pricing pages with content from Tullett Prebon Information (TPI).
July 2006 - Ruble becomes fully convertible
MOSCOW – The Russian ruble became fully convertible in July, signalling a new era for the country's financial markets.