Fazzaco Weekly Digest: Chrysanthi Matsentidou Joins Windsor Brokers; Binance to Stop Offering NOK Trading Pairs; FCA Grants coinpass Crypto License

Take a look at the latest happenings in this week's news digest from around the forex, fintech and crypto industry. Here are some of the top headlines from this past week.

1. Chrysanthi Matsentidou Joins Windsor Brokers as HR Executive

Chrysanthi Matsentidou, former FXVC's HR Officer, has been appointed as Windsor Brokers's HR Executive, following the departure of Andreas Savvides, who has unveiled via LinkedIn that his tenure in the company came to an end.

Windsor Brokers is a leading forex and CFDs brokerage, with 33 years of experience in the financial markets, offering online trading services to retail and corporate clients from over 80 countries worldwide.  

Prior to joining Windsor Brokers, Chrysanthi had a 11-month stint at FXVC, a leading trading platform authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Before that, Chrysanthi worked as Office and HR Administrator at FXPRIMUS, a Cypriot broker offering multiple instruments including Forex and Crypto.

2. Binance to Stop Offering NOK Trading Pairs

Binance, one of the most prominent blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure providers, has announced several changes to product offering in Norway.

Binance mentioned that it will be discontinuing NOK trading pairs, NOK payment options and Norwegian language website support, effective immediately. In addition, the exchange highlighted that it does not maintain any official Telegram or other online communication channels in Norwegian.

"Our aim is to create a sustainable ecosystem around blockchain technology and digital assets," the company stated. "Binance welcomes developments to our industry's regulatory framework as they pose opportunities for the market players to have greater collaboration with the regulators. We are committed to working constructively in policy-making that seeks to benefit every user."

3. FCA Grants coinpass Full Approval to Operate as Crypto-Asset Firm

The UK-based cryptocurrency exchange platform coinpass.com (coinpass) announced that it has received the full approval to operate as a registered crypto-asset business granted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with Reference Number 921481.

Coinpass is among one of the first UK-based cryptocurrency trading exchanges for retail investors and businesses to be fully registered with the FCA. 

"We understand and fully support that to evolve the cryptocurrency market to be more inclusive and attractive to a larger number of users, we would require regulatory guidelines for exchanges and gateways. The UK is a financial hub for investment and fintech and it has the potential, under the FCA's guidance, to be a world leader in cryptocurrency regulation. With this registration, I am exceptionally bullish on the future for crypto in the United Kingdom and proud of our achievement," Jeff Hancock, CEO of coinpass stated.

4. Equiti Capital Reports 17% Increase in Revenue in 2020

Equiti Capital UK Limited(Equiti UK), the UK arm of financial services provider Equiti Group, has posted its financials in 2020, revealing a jump in revenue.

More specifically, the broker registered a revenue of $33.1 million, increased by 17% compared with $28.3 million in 2019. Net profit came in at $1.4 million, compared with a loss of $1.0 million in 2019.

Gross profit for the year stood at $23.6 million, higher than the prior year's $19.3 million. In addition, profit from operations totaled $420,731, and profit before tax approached $1.4 million.

5. Rakuten Securities Reduces Spreads on Nine Currency Pairs

Fazzaco learned that Rakuten Securities, a Japanese FX, CFD and stock broker, announced that it has reduced the spreads on nine currency pairs, effective September 1, 2021.

• The spread for NZD/JPY is reduced from 3.9 sen to 1.2 sen.

• The spread for CAD/JPY is reduced from 3.9 sen to 1.7 sen.

• The spread for CHF/JPY is reduced from 5.9 sen to 1.8 sen.

• The spread for AUD/USD is reduced from 1.9 pips to 0.9 pips.

• The spread for NZD/USD is reduced from 4 pips to 1.6 pips.

• The spread for USD/CHF is reduced from 5 pips to 1.6 pips.

• The spread for GBP/CHF is reduced from 5 pips to 2.8 pips.

• The spread for EUR/GBP is reduced from 4 pips to 1.0 pips.

• The spread for EUR/CHF is reduced from 5 pips to 1.8 pips.

6. CQG Announces Partnership with Brazilian Exchange B3

CQG, a high-performance market data and electronic trading application for traders, has announced the partnership with B3, one of the main financial market infrastructure companies in the world, adding it to the global network of platforms.

Based in São Paulo, B3 connects, develops and enables the financial and capital market and, together with customers and society, boosts Brazil's growth. It trades in stock exchange and OTC environments, and offers products and services to the financing chain.

The partnership will enable CQG's clients to obtain trading and market data access to the Brazilian markets for their listed commodities, interest rates, treasury, and equities products. B3 trading customers in Brazil and throughout the world can also benefit from CQG's comprehensive suite of trading front ends and APIs.

7. Exness Hires Ahmed Badr as Sales Team Lead for MEA​

Fazzaco learned that Forex and CFDs broker Exness has hired Ahmed Badr as the company's Sales Team Lead for Middle East Area.

As seen on his LinkedIn profile, Ahmed joins Exness from easyMarkets, where he worked as Regional Business Development Manager. Prior to easyMarkets, he was Business Development Manager MENA at ForexTime. Before that, he served as Client Support Manager at ThinkMarkets. Additionally, he had also held positions at ICM.com, EDS and Coldwell Banker.

Ahmed earned his degree in English for Commerce from City Academy.