Fazzaco Weekly Digest: The Struggle of FX Brokers to Go Public; FXCM Pro Partners with Your Bourse; Binance.US Suspends US Dollar Deposits

Over the past week, the cryptocurrency industry, represented by Binance​ and Coinbase​, has been in an increasingly difficult situation and has been severely cracked down by US regulators. To end this, Binance.US not only suspended its OTC trading and delisted over 100 trading pairs, but also paused US dollar deposits and revealed that it may stop fiat dollar withdrawals as early as June 13. 

At the same time, the traditional financial industry has received support from various sides. On June 5, South Korea announced the abolition of foreign investors' registration requirement, which has been in place for about three decades since 1992, to facilitate foreign investors investing in locally listed securities. On June 6, Broadridge's corporate bond e-trading platform, LTX, launched a new application called BondGPT, aiming to improve the transparency of the trading market as well as help investors make better decisions.

In addition, FXCM Pro has partnered with Your Bourse, a software solutions provider for retail and institutional MT4/MT5 brokers, to provide ultra-low latency execution.

Nevertheless, in the current complex economic and regulatory environment, brokers are also facing development problems such as IPO issues.

Here are the related details, as well as some of the most read forex, crypto, and fintech news pieces and articles from Fazzaco over the past week.

1. Listen to the Article: No Entry to IPO? The Struggle of FX Brokers to Go Public​

The global IPO market cooled down in the first quarter of 2023, after two years of growth. Global IPOs dropped by 8% year-on-year, and the raised amount fell by 61%. Tech companies, including fintechs, had been leading the global IPOs, but they faced a sharp decline in their valuations, as Fazzaco brought up in the article on fintech funding frenzy. The crypto market and banking industry also went through a rough patch last year, adding more woes to the IPO market.

Meanwhile, the number of forex and CFD brokers going public remained lukewarm, and only a handful of them did. Some of the top brokers, big names such as IG Group, Interactive Brokers, Plus500, CMC Markets and so on, are publicly traded. But the list hasn't grown much over the years.

2. The Forex Brokers' Ultimate Guide to Software Plug-ins

Trading software plug-ins are add-ons or mini-programs that can expand the functionality of the existing trading platform. Plugins can offer advanced functionality to both traders and brokers. Charting tools, automated trading strategies, risk management tools, and various analysis tool plugins can help brokers and traders to enhance their experience and minimize the time needed for workflow management. 

As the competition between brokers becomes fiercer and fiercer, each one is trying to introduce new and innovative solutions to help their clients get the best experience possible. One of the main battlefields for software is trading platform plugins. We will divide the plugins into two groups, the ones that brokers need to use themselves for various purposes and the plugins that brokers provide to their clients.

3. LTX by Broadridge Releases GPT-4 Powered App, BondGPTSM​

LTX, a corporate bond e-trading platform of US-based global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., announced today the launch of BondGPT, an application that combines the power of OpenAI GPT-4 with LTX's analytics and comprehensive underlying dataset.

This follows LTX's completing a successful migration of its corporate bond e-trading platform to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in late March.

4. South Korea to Abolish Foreign Investor Registration Requirement

South Korea's top financial regulator, Financial Services Commission (FSC), announced today that the government approved a revision bill of the Enforcement Decree of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FSCMA) abolishing the foreign investors' registration requirement at a cabinet meeting held on June 5. The foreign investor registration system, which has been in place for about three decades since 1992, will be abolished starting from December 14 this year, six months after promulgation of the revised law which is expected to be on June 13.

5. FXCM Pro Joins Force with Your Bourse to Provide Ultra-Low Latency Execution​

FXCM Pro, the institutional brokerage and trading services arm of FXCM Group, has partnered with Your Bourse, a leading software solutions provider for retail and institutional MT4/MT5 brokers, to provide ultra-low latency execution.

Your Bourse's flagship product, Matching Engine, will enable FXCM and FXCM Pro clients to benefit from an order processing time of two microseconds per order and will be able to create a new FIX session in less than 20 seconds. 

6. Zenfinex Obtains First Permanent CFD Trading Licence in Sierra Leone

The global forex and CFD broker Zenfinex has become the first company in its industry to secure a permanent licence for trading CFDs from the Central Bank of Sierra Leone. This marks a significant development for the broker's global expansion strategy, and underscores the firm's commitment to deliver reliable, efficient trading services.

This comes after Zenfinex's opening its second office in Latin America last month.

7. Binance.US Suspends US Dollar Deposits, Prepares to Pause Dollar Withdrawals as Early as June 13​

Crypto exchange Binance.US said on Thursday it is suspending U.S. dollar deposits and that its banking partners are preparing to pause fiat dollar withdrawal channels as early as June 13, just days after U.S. regulators sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Furthermore, it announced the suspension of its OTC trading and the delisting of more than 100 trading pairs, most of which are USDT pairs, earlier that day.