Fazzaco Weekly Digest: Simon Lyons Joins obconnect; WhatsApp's Global Outage; XTB Reports 126.4% YoY Jump in Net Profit

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. obconnect Appoints Pay.UK Former Exec Simon Lyons as Chief Strategy Officer

UK-based open banking company obconnect,has appointed Simon Lyons as its Chief Strategy Officer. In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding the firm's "blue chip" client base and helping the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) achieve its Confirmation of Payee goals in the UK.

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Lyons joins obconnect from Pay.UK, an operator of the UK's national retail payment systems, where he served as Standards Transformation Lead for over a year and led a piece of work between the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Pay.UK and the wider open banking ecosystem to address a "long-standing" legacy problem.

2. Swissquote Places DFM’s Listed Securities on the Radar of Its Clients​

As part of its constant efforts to boost market accessibility for greater numbers of international investors, Dubai Financial Market (DFM) welcomed Swissquote Bank Ltd, Switzerland's leading online Bank, endeavor to allow its clients' access to DFM listed securities from October 25th, 2022.

Swissquote Bank is the leading Swiss provider of online financial services granting its clients access to trade an extensive range of asset classes that includes stocks, ETFs, funds, bonds, derivatives, cryptocurrencies and more. Swissquote's AUC stand at over US$ 50 billion. With a Tier 1 ratio of over 25 percent, the bank is one of the best-capitalized banks in Europe.

3. Match-Prime Liquidity Appoints Despina Savvidou as Chief Risk Officer

Fazzaco learned that Match-Prime Liquidity, a liquidity provider for Forex and CFD markets, has selected Despina Savvidou to assume the role of its Chief Risk Officer.

Despina is an experienced professional with 15+ years of experience in financial industry. Most recently, she was Head of Brokerage at Fxview, a leading Forex trading firm. Prior to that, she served Axiance, a multi-asset brokerage firm, as Group Chief Risk Officer.

4. Invast Global Continues Global Expansion with a Plan to Acquire GMO-Z.com Trade UK​

Invast Financial Services Pty Ltd. (IFS), trading as Invast Global, today announces it plans to acquire GMO-Z.com Trade UK Limited (GMO-Z.com Trade UK) from GMO Financial Holdings Inc.

GMO-Z.com Trade UK will become the UK subsidiary of the Australian headquartered Invast Global, a subsidiary of INV Inc.

5. Breaking News: Global WhatsApp Outage Semi-Paralyzes Instant Messaging of the Financial World

Fazzaco learned that the outage reports of WhatsApp suddenly peaked around 16:00 GMT+8 on Oct. 25, 2022. Users are unable to alter their profile information or privacy settings, send or receive new messages, or join up for WhatsApp, according to the users.

Two web services that monitor the Facebook app, DownDetector and WaBetaInfo, have verified the outage. According to DownDetector, which in a single hour received more than 60,000 user complaints regarding the issue, WhatsApp is currently down everywhere.

6. XTB Reports 126.4% YoY Jump in Net Profit for Q3 2022​

Fazzaco learned that X-Trade Brokers (XTB), a leading FX & CFD broker based in Poland, has released its financials for the third quarter of 2022, showing a great jump in net profit and revenues compared to the same period of last year.

7. Crypto Exchange LocalCryptos to Exit the Market Amid Crypto Winter​

Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchange LocalCryptos has announced plans to exit the market after five years of operation, with the platform emerging as the latest casualty of the extended bear market. 

According to LocalCryptos, the planned shutdown of operations was voluntary, citing several reasons, including the general crypto market meltdown and the uncertainty around the regulatory space, the exchange said in a blog post published on October 21.