Fazzaco Weekly Digest:Coinbase Launches Services in Japan; Greg Monahan Joins Binance......

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.

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1. Coinbase Launches Services in Japan
Coinbase, a California based digital asset exchange operator, announced the launch of its services in Japan, one of the first countries to embrace crypto and one of the largest markets by crypto trading volumes in the world.

According to the official announcement, Coinbase has partnered with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the largest banks in Japan serving 40 million Japanese customers. This partnership will allow millions of people in Japan to access Coinbase's platform and begin trading by offering MUFG Deposit for all customers in Japan from day one.

​2. Former US Federal Law Enforcement Investigator Greg Monahan Joins Binance

The top crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance, today announced that it has appointed the former US Treasury Criminal Investigator Greg Monahan as the company’s Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer (GMLRO).

​Monahan has nearly 30 years of credited government service, a majority of which as a US Treasury Criminal Investigator, responsible for tax, money laundering and other related financial crime investigations. He has led complex international investigations that have resulted in the takedown of some of the most prolific cybercriminals, nation-state actors and terrorist organizations.

3. Exness Hires Patricia Gómez as Business Development Manager

Fazzaco learned that Forex and CFDs broker Exness has hired Patricia Gómez as Business Development Manager.

​As seen on her LinkedIn profile, Patricia joins Exness from M4Markets, where she was Head of Latam. Prior to M4Markets, she served as Latam Partnership and Business Development Specialist at StormGain, Libertex Group and Forex Club, respectively. Additionally, she also worked as Team Leader at HotForex.

​4. Exclusive: Win-Loss Ratios of 37 Retail Brokers in August 2021

Fazzaco has collected a total of 37 retail brokers' data from August 2021 to see the dealings of brokers and retail traders.

*The actual loss ratio for HYCM is 74-89%, with the average values applied in the table above.

As you can see from the chart, the average winning rate is 26.88% and the average losing rate is 73.12%.

​FXOpen ranks number one for a whopping 40% winning ratio. Saxo Bank is in second place with 1% lower than FXOpen’s. Other brokers in the top 5 are also notable: ActivTrades(38%), AVA(38%), ICM Capital(33.86%).

5. Saxo Bank Promotes Camilla Dahl Hansen as Chief Saxo Experience Officer

Saxo Bank, Copenhagen based Retail FX and CFDs broker, announced that it has promoted Camilla Dahl Hansen as its Chief Saxo Experience Officer and member of the Bank’s Executive Team.

Camilla formally joined Saxo Bank in April 2021 as Chief Operating Officer in the Saxo Experience Office, with nearly two decades of experience in the financial industry. She previously served in various senior leadership positions in Danske Bank for over 13 years.

During her time at Danske, Hansen worked in different roles including SVP, Head of Societal Impact & Sustainability, DK. Prior to Danske Bank, she worked at McKinsey & Co and in the advertisement industry.

6. Plus500 Sees 39% Decline in Revenue in H1 2021

Plus500, a retail Forex and CFDs broker, has released its interim results for the six month period ended 30 June 2021, reporting a significant drop in its revenue.

According to the figures, the broker generated total revenue of $346.2 million in the six month period, which is a 39 percent decline from the previous year’s $564.2 million.

The company’s EBITDA for H1 2021 was $187.6 million, down from $361.8 million registered in the first half of 2020. Additionally, the EBITDA margin remained strong at 54 percent, recovering from 50 percent in the previous year-half.

Moreover, the broker highlighted a $165.1 million in net profit for the first six months of the ongoing year. In the previous year, the net income of the company was at $320 million for H1 and $180.1 million for H2.

Plus500 onboarded 136,980 new clients in the period, the figure was 198,176 in H1 2020 and 96,552 in H2 2020. The number of active customers increased to 333,940.

7. CPT International Hires SquareFinancial’s Filippo De Rosa as CEO​

Fazzaco learned that CPT International, a global FX and CFDs broker, has hired Filippo De Rosa as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. De Rosa brings with 15 years of experience within retail and institutional sales as well as management of sales teams/offices. As seen on his Linkedin profile, he joined CPT International from SquaredFinancial, where he was the Head of Sales based out of Cyprus. Before this role, he had been with Australia based FX broker AxiTrader for more than three years, based in the UAE, heading up Axi’s retail and institutional business in the Middle East. 

Prior to joining AxiTrader in 2017, Mr. De Rosa was Head of Sales for IG in Dubai, and Head of the Abu Dhabi office for Saxo Bank. He had also been branch manager of Italy for US online firm E*Trade Financial. Over the course of his career, Mr. De Rosa has also worked at Moody's Analytics and Datamonitor.