This week saw a mixture of regulatory actions, suspensions and fines for brokers, results and broker rebrands. It was also one of the busiest Forex Industry News periods.

What marketing/retention activity will the FCA ban, as part its overhaul of advertising for risky products to retail investors

What modifications has the Cyprus regulator Cysec made to comply with ESMA recommendations for CySEC’s increased effectiveness?

Which Retail FX brokers were subject to a fine and their licenses were suspended?

How did FCA regulate brokers Formax Prime & Citypoint Trading rebrand each under new ownership?

What well-respected FX industry names were affected by the departures of their COOs?

FNG has the answers to all these questions and more exclusively for this week’s edition. FNG has published some of the most talked-about and commented on FX industry news stories in the last seven days.

FCA will ban refer-a friend bonuses as part of a crackdown on financial marketing. The UK’s financial markets regulator the FCA has announced that it has finalised stronger rules to help tackle misleading adverts that encourage investing in high-risk products. The stronger rules require that firms authorizing and issuing marketing have the appropriate expertise. Firms marketing high-risk investments must also conduct better checks to ensure that consumers and their investments are well matched.

CySEC has agreed to increase supervision in accordance with ESMA’s recommendations. Pan European financial regulator oversight body, The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that CySEC has presented ESMA a plan to implement a number of recommendations made by ESMA back in March. CySEC – which oversees more Retail FX and CFD brokers than any other regulator worldwide – also included a timeline for the gradual recruitment of resources and the interim solution identified, and periodic statistics on some indicators identified in the recommendations.

CySEC hands out €300,000 in Retail FX broker fines, to F1Markets and MagnumFX. Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has continued its crackdown on the Retail FX and CFDs brokerage sector, handing out a pair of €150,000 fines in settlements with F1 Markets Ltd and Magnum FX (Cyprus) Ltd., via settlements with both companies. F1 Markets Ltd. and Magnum FX Ltd., which were responsible for the fines, have both decided to renounce their CySEC CIF licences. However, neither company has yet been completed the process.

CySEC suspends Exelcius Prime Ltd’s CIF license. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has announced that the authorisation of Cyprus Investment Firm Exelcius Prime Ltd, number 366/18, is suspended in whole, pursuant to section 10(1) of Directive DI87-05 for The Withdrawal and Suspension of Authorisation (‘the DI87-05’). Exelcius Prime is the operator of 1Market, a retail FX and CFD brokerage platform. Visit 1market.eu.

CySEC suspends partially the operating license for Vpr Safe Financial, Alvexo operator. CySEC, the Cyprus financial regulator, has suspended the operating license for VPR Safe Financial Group Limited (CIF number 236/14), as part of its ongoing crackdown on the retail FX and CFDs brokerage sectors. VPR Safe Financial Group Limited manages the Alvexo online trading platform, which can be found at alvexo.eu and alvexo.fr.

Exclusive: Formax Prime will relaunch as 4T Markets after a new owner. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that FCA licensed MT4/MT5 broker Formax Prime has been acquired and rebranded as 4T Markets. The broker’s new url is 4t.co.uk, with a sister offshore entity in Seychelles operating website 4t.com. Waqas Mahmood, a UK-based businessman, sold the company to Regalis Trading Solutions Limited.

FNG reported this week the top FX industry executives’ moves:

Kate Rutkovskaya ❑ Exclusive: Your Bourse COO Kate Rutkovskaya steps down.

❑ Exclusive: Rebranded CPT Markets hires GO Markets MENA exec Sherif Sanad, Mike Greenhalgh.

❑ Exclusive: Saxo Bank UK COO Peter Morris resigns.

❑ Exclusive: Pepperstone hires GO Markets exec Tom Williams to head Risk and Analytics.

❑ FlowBank promotes COO, CMO to expand Executive Committee.

❑ Exclusive: BDSwiss hires FXPRIMUS exec Martha Leventi as Bus Dev Manager.

❑ Exclusive: ATFX hires Edgewater exec Telmo Simoes for LatAm Institutional Sales.

The post FX week in Review: FCA crackdown; CySEC fines/suspensions, Formax and Citypoint Rebrand first appeared on Raw News.