Fxcm's January Non: U.S. volume rises 18 pct

Global Brokerage

15/02/2017 19:24

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss 
    Feb 15 (Reuters) - Currency broker FXCM Inc  FXCM.O , which 
was banned last week from operating in the United States, said 
on Wednesday its non-U.S. monthly trading volume rose 18 percent 
to an estimated $253 billion in January from December. 
    Volume, however, fell 17 percent from a year earlier. 
    The company said in a statement it excluded U.S. trading 
from the estimate because it had agreed to sell its U.S. 
accounts to rival Gain Capital Holdings Inc  GCAP.N  and 
withdraw from the United States.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1FS7OV 
    FXCM was banned last week by the U.S. Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission from doing business in the United States for 
betting against its customers in trades. The commission ordered 
Forex Capital Markets, its parent FXCM Holdings LLC and founding 
partners Dror Niv and William Ahdout to pay $7 million to settle 
charges it had defrauded retail foreign exchange customers. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nEMN10Y33O 
    At the end of 2016, FXCM's U.S. retail forex accounts 
totaled nearly $179 million, according to the commission's 
website. The United States accounts for 18 percent of FXCM's 
revenue, the company's website showed. 
    January customer trading volume averaged $12 billion a day, 
up 18 percent from December. 
    The commission said last week that FXCM had an interest in a 
market maker on its trading platform that consistently won the 
largest share of the company's trading volume, and thus was 
taking positions in opposition to FXCM's retail customers. 
    As an agency broker registered with the commission, FXCM was 
to act merely as an intermediary between the buyer and seller in 
foreign exchange transactions. 
    FXCM said on Monday the sale of its U.S. retail foreign 
exchange business was expected to reduce consolidated revenues 
by $38.8 million and increase net profit by $13.9 million for 
the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2016. 
 
 (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Richard 
Chang) 
 ((gertrude.chavez@thomsonreuters.com; tel: 1-646-2236322)) 
 
Keywords: FXCM FOREX/VOLUME