In the past week, what interesting foreign exchange news happened in the foreign exchange market? Tian Yan Jun take you to see, the specific news is as follows:

ThinkMarkets reached a settlement to the long-running lawsuit the day before the trial

1, SW violation was revoked by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority license

Recently, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that the broker SW Financial had committed a number of violations, including making false statements to users in the private placement marketing sale of pre-IPO securities, maliciously tampering with user accounts, and failing to supervise its representatives.

Since then, FINRA has suspended owner and CEO Thomas Diamante in both names, fined him $50,000 and required him to pass an exam to re-qualify if he seeks to register with FINRA as a general securities principal or investment banking representative in the future. The details are as follows:

Finra found that between January 2018 and 2021, Diamante and SW Financial made material misrepresentations and omissions of material information in connection with the private offering sale of pre-IPO securities, in violation of FINRA's rules and Interest Oversight Regulations (Reg BI). Reg BI requires brokers and related personnel to provide full and fair written disclosure to retail clients prior to or at the time of the referral, disclosing all material facts related to the conflict of interest associated with the referral.

Prior to this, SW Financial had informed potential investors that it would collect only a 10% commission on sales related to the sale prior to the IPO, when in fact Diamante had entered into an undisclosed agreement with the issuer. Under the agreement, SW Financial will receive an additional 5% of sales compensation and half of carried interest (i.e. the share of profits payable to the issuer's investment manager).

In total, SW Financial sold private shares to 171 investors during the IPO, including 163 retail customers, but its owners received approximately $2 million in undisclosed compensation because the proceeds conflicted with the company's regulatory disclosure agreements.

Among other things, FINRA found that between January 2016 and May 2019, SW Financial manipulated nine customer accounts through two former representatives, causing customers to incur more than $350,000 in total transaction costs and realizing more than $465,000 in losses. In addressing these issues, SW Financial and Diamante simply accept FINRA's findings and do not confirm or deny them.

2. CLSA Premium will suspend margin trading

Hong Kong-focused forex broker CLSA Securities Limited today issued a business update in which the brokerage said it has recently seen positive results since launching its initial exploration into the healthcare business in mid-2022.

In the first quarter of 2023, the majority of the Group's revenue and profit were contributed by the medical business. This is due to the Board's view that the Group's margin trading and bullion trading businesses have limited prospects for acquiring new customers and improving performance. On this basis, the Board determined that the resources and energy devoted to the margin trading business could be better used in the healthcare business and decided to suspend the operations of the margin trading business.

Trading in CLSA Premium's shares has been suspended since 9am on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 and will remain suspended until further notice. (Through the search of the Forex APP, the platform's Tianyan score is 6.13 points, although the score is high, but from its exposure station shows that there are 14 customer complaints, investors are advised to pay attention to screening!)

3. Tickmill launches new Dubai office under DFSA supervision

Recently, online trader Tickmill announced that it recently opened its newest office in the Emirates Financial Building. The Dubai office, which operates under the supervision of the DFSA, will be managed by Joseph Dahrieh, who will serve as the managing head. As a country manager and marketing strategist, Joseph has been helping the brand expand in the region for more than 5 years.

Tickmill Group said that with this new opening, it has set a new milestone for further expansion on the global stage, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region. The office will support the Tickmill brand's local operations while serving customers and driving expansion efforts in the region. (Through the search of the Forex APP, the platform's Tianyan score is 8.17 points, although the score is high, investors are advised to pay attention to screening!)

4. iS Prime and ThinkMarkets settled a long-running lawsuit the day before the trial

One of the longest running (and most interesting) legal battles in the forex trading world has ended the day before it was due to go to trial in the UK. Prime-of-prime broker iS Prime and retail forex broker ThinkMarkets (via its UK branch TF Global Markets UK) Limited) has settled litigation arising from the sale of ThinkMarkets' B2B arm ThinkLiquidity to iS Prime parent ISAM in 2017. The acquired ThinkLiquidity business formed the basis of ISAM's current division, iS Risk (formerly iS Risk Analytics).

iS Prime initially sued ThinkMarkets in the UK courts for $15 million, claiming that ThinkMarkets did not send its transactions to the ISAM Group unit for execution as part of an exclusivity clause in the sales agreement. The lawsuit involves several claims and counterclaims made by both parties. There have been other "side lawsuits", such as a former ThinkMarkets employee in the US who was sued by ThinkMarkets after moving to ISAM Group of companies.

While previous attempts at arbitration have been unsuccessful, the lawsuit and various counterclaims by the parties - some of which have been dismissed in a number of preliminary rulings over the past two years - are set to begin before Judge Mark Pelling KC of the High Court of Justice in the UK tomorrow.