Fazzaco Weekly Digest: eToro Expands Crypto Offering; Invast Global Appoints New Director; IronFX UK Posts Jump in 2021 Revenue

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

1. eToro Expands Crypto Offering with Addition of Four New Coins​

eToro, an Israeli social trading and multi-asset brokerage company, announced that it has expanded its crypto offering with the addition of Cronos (CRO), Kyber Network (KNC), Terra (LUNA) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS). For now, these four coins will not be available to US users.

The launch of these four coins comes after eToro added Theta and Fantom to its crypto offering, bringing the total number of cryptoassets available on the platform to 62. This shows the brokerage's commitment to offer all its users a broad variety of cryptoassets.

2. Invast Global Appoints Ex-Credit Suisse Exec Matt Harris as Director​

Invast Global, a leading multi-asset brokerage based in Sydney, has announced the appointment of Matt Harris as its Director.

Matt Harris brings to the company more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Most recently, he led PS4PB & Prime Services at Credit Suisse where he worked for over 13 years.

3. Morgan Stanley Appoints Its Montréal COO Sophia Bennaceur to Lead Montréal Office

Morgan Stanley announced that Montréal Senior Executive Sophia Bennaceur will assume the role of Regional Head of Morgan Stanley Montréal and Technology Montréal. 

Sophia will replace Alan Vesprini, who retires after 12 years of success with the firm. With over 20 years of experience in investment banking across Operations, Finance and Information Technologies, Sophia joined Morgan Stanley in 2016 as the Chief Operating Officer for Morgan Stanley in Montréal.

4. CySEC Decision for Suspension of Trading of Shares​

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (‘EKK’) informs the investing public that, at the meeting of 18 April 2022, decided, on the basis of the authority given to it by Article 70 (2) (m) of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017, to ask the CSE Council to suspend the trading of shares of some companies.

As investors are not provided with the required financial information situation of these Companies, EKK decided to request the suspension of the trading of the companies' shares on the CSE from 21st April 2022 until their compliance and no later than 30th June 2022.

5. IronFX UK Posts Jump in 2021 Revenue, Closes Year Profitable​

Notesco UK Limited, which operates IronFX UK, has published its financial results for the year ended on the 31st of December 2021, revealing a significant jump in revenue during the period.

The company reported a revenue of $863,071 across the 12 month period. When measuring this against the previous year, which had a revenue of $431,449, representing a jump of over 100 percent.

6. Key Financial Indicators Comparison: Trading 212 UK vs NAGA​

A number of forex brokers have released their financials for the year of 2021. By analyzing these written records that convey the business activities, traders can find out each broker's profitability and operation in the past year.

Through analysis, we find that two forex brokers stand out as they witnessed rapid growth in trading metrics compared with 2020, i.e. Trading 212 UK Limited ("T212") and NAGA.

The comparison between these two companies in 2021 revenue, net profit and EBITDA, shows that T212's figure is much higher than that of NAGA. However, NAGA enjoys a higher growth rate on a YoY basis. 

7. FSCS Paid over £114M Under Government LCF Compensation Scheme​

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK's statutory Deposit insurance and investors compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms, announced that it has paid compensation for 12,330 bonds under the government's LCF compensation scheme, totalling over £114m.

London Capital & Finance plc (LCF) went into administration on 30 January 2019 and FSCS declared it had failed on 9 January 2020. By 19 April 2021, FSCS had paid over £57.6m to 2,871 bondholders who were eligible for compensation.