SNBomb – Reactions from 41 forex brokers

The shock move from the Swiss National Bank has significantly impacted foreign exchange and also foreign exchange brokers. We already noted how such events are tests for brokers. And now, here is a round up reactions (updated)

This is only a partial list giving you an idea of the range of responses: from making profits / business as usual, through taking losses, revisiting positions, suffering capital shortfalls and up to outright insolvencies. Here goes:

The biggest stories are the insolvency of Alpari UK and the bailout of FXCM. There are quite a few brokers that suffered losses, several others that have CHF trading suspended and many saying “business as usual”. OANDA stands out by forgiving negative equity.

Here is the updated list, now in alphabetical order for your convenience:

1. ActivTrades: “no negative impact”. The company took measures: “Back in November 2014, ActivTrades had already anticipated the possibility of such events. Consequently, we decided at the time to increase the margin required on our CHF pairs by a multiple of 16. Thanks to this measure ActivTrades was able to protect its clients by substantially limiting their losses. Hence by protecting our clients’ interests, we protected the interests of the company as a whole”
2. Alpari UK: The firm has not yet entered insolvency (updated). Here is the original statement:The recent move on the Swiss franc caused by the Swiss National Bank’s unexpected policy reversal of capping the Swiss franc against the euro has resulted in exceptional volatility and extreme lack of liquidity. This has resulted in the majority of clients sustaining losses which has exceeded their account equity. Where a client cannot cover this loss, it is passed on to us. This has forced Alpari (UK) Limited to confirm today, 16/01/15, that it has entered into insolvency. Retail client funds continue to be segregated in accordance with FCA rules. And this has been updated to say that Alpari UK has NOT entered formal insolvency process – sale on the cards
3. Avatrade: “no material effect”. The broker says: “Avatrade is pleased to confirm that yesterdays SNB statement and Swiss Franc volatility had no material effect on the companies strong financial position”.
4. AxiTrader: According to reader Paul (thanks!) the Australian broker is OK and set to release a statement about the situation later on.
5. BMFN: “no client losses and full stability”. This is what the broker says: “Our risk management department managed the whole situation smoothly indeed. Clients uncovered losses were only $200,000 in total, and we will not ask these clients for any reinboursement, and the remainder of our clients had enough margin and had no problems”
6. City Index: “No material impact”. From the statement: Following this and queries from customers, we would like to take the opportunity to reassure our clients and confirm to the market that City Index has not suffered any material impact as a result of yesterday’s volatility and our financial position has not been affected. It is very much business as usual for City Index and our global client base.
7. CMC Markets: “Business as usual”. From their statement: CMC Markets sustained some losses, however, the overall impact including possible bad debts has not materially impacted the Group. The Group’s balance sheet post these events remains strong, with a regulatory capital ratio of 24% (300% pre CRD IV) and own funds in excess of £130m. All retail client funds are fully segregated and protected. CMC Markets continues to have a strong balance sheet and business model; the Group remains on course to exceed last year’s financial performance. It’s business as usual.”
8. Darwinex: This broker reports business as usual and links to news about FXCM and IG in their statement. They also sign with “Solvently yours”. Here is what they say about their situation: For our part, yesterday was business as usual. We suffered minimal losses as low-leverage customers were margined out and there was no market-depth for them (and therefore, us) to stop their (therefore, our) losses. Broadly speaking, our low risk policy paid off.
9. Dukascopy: The Swiss based broker says “business as usual”. Statement: “The scenario of such shock had been anticipated four months in advance as shown in our news published on 3rd of October 2014: “Due to the possibility of a break of the 1.2000 floor in EUR/CHF which may see significant price gaps and cause negative equity on client accounts, Dukascopy Bank is forced to implement a maximum leverage for EURCHF exposures of 1:10 as of 12 October 2014″
10. Easy-forex: “Reassures Clients On Swiss Franc Fears”. The Cyprus based broker says: “easy-forex was not affected due to its strong risk management systems and our clients are safe due to our guaranteed stop losses and negative balance protection. We wish to reassure clients that at easy-forex it’s business as usual and we remain committed to client safety through numerous measures including segregated funds and full compliance with our regulatory authorities. With guaranteed stop losses, negative balance protection, no requotes and full support from our expert team our clients are happy and busy trading the trend. In fact, easy-forex was one of the first brokers in the world to resume trading on CHF pairs and has noted positive trading activity on the currency”
11. Excel Markets: This not really globaly known New Zealand based broker had to shut down. It was unable to meet client losses held at its liquidity providers.
12. EXNESS: “business not significantly affected”. The international forex broker said: “At the end of the day, EXNESS’ total losses amounted to less than 1.6% of the company’s capital. We would like to clarify that these losses only affected EXNESS’ own funds – this in no way whatsoever affects clients’ funds, which are held in special accounts that are separate from the company’s funds. However, we have decided to temporarily suspend trading currency pairs with the Swiss franc. This is due to our desire to maintain high-quality order execution and the need to minimize financial risks for our clients and the company”
13. Forex Broker Inc: Trading has resumed on CHF pairs. After a temporary freeze on “Black Thursday”, the company announced that trading has been re-enabled on 7 pairs. There is no additional news regarding the company’s situation.
14. FXCM: Forex Capital Management had this to report: “the company may be in breach of some regulatory capital requirements” as they were hit by a massive $225 million client negative balance. The publicly listed broker said that is “actively discussing alternatives to return our capital to levels prior to the events”. Update: trading has halted on the New York Stock Exchange after a fall of over 80% in the stock price. Update: FXCM received a 300 million lifeline from Leucadia. The mighty forex broker reported: “Under the terms of the agreements, Leucadia is investing $300 million in cash into FXCM in the form of a $300 million senior secured term loan with a two-year maturity and an initial coupon of 10%. The term loan obligations are guaranteed, on a secured basis, by certain of FXCM’s domestic subsidiaries. In addition, Leucadia will receive, in the event of a sale of FXCM or its subsidiaries, a certain percentage of the sale proceeds and, in the event FXCM makes other distributions on account of its equity, a corresponding payment for its own account”
15. FXDD: “open for business, minimal impact”. The broker said: “As a result of yesterday’s decision from the Swiss National Bank to discontinue its minimum exchange rate, causing extraordinary volatility and creating massive gaps where pricing was not available and no execution was possible, as with all entities in the FX Space, FXDD was forced to adjust pricing in the CHF pairs,” said Emil Assentato CEO of Currency Mountain Holdings and Chairman of FXDD Global. “We apologize for having to take this extraordinary action. This was a global event that created illiquidity in all Swiss related products. All financial institutions have suffered because of this crisis. Despite these extraordinary market conditions, FXDD Global’s trading operations remain stable and we remain fully operational and open for business”
16. FXOpen: resumed CHF trading. After halting trading on Swiss pairs, the broker resumed trading andsaid: “trading on CHF crosses suspended due to radical market situation. Following SNB decision on interest rate and removal of the 1.20 floor, the Liquidity Providers introduced more rigorous trading terms, including increased margin calls”
17. FXTM: “no major impact”. Forex Time released this statement: Forex Time can confirm that the unexpected turn of events regarding the Swiss Franc have not had a major impact on the Company. A solid risk management policy is in place to safeguard the Company and its clients against situations of this kind. “We would like to assure our clients that our capital adequacy ratio has not been affected; any losses incurred have been absorbed and our clients’ funds remain protected. Any negative balances which have arisen are in the process of being corrected and business will continue as usual.
18. FxPro: The broker announced the suspension of all CHF trading. No problems were reported. From the firm:FxPro Group announces that negative balances resulting from yesterday’s extreme market conditions on CHF crosses have not affected the funds of our clients. All such losses were borne solely by the capital the company places as collateral with its prime broker and liquidity providers, as per our responsibility to protect our clients and comply with regulatory requirements. Our commitment to negative balance protection as outlined in our terms and conditions has been upheld. All negative balances still appearing on the terminals of our clients are in the process of being corrected. While the company has been affected by the events of what is now being called Black Thursday, FxPro remains fully operational and solidly capitalised, as ever. It is business as usual: deposits, withdrawals and the entering of positions continue as on any other trading day. The funds of our clients remain segregated and the protections afforded to them by our true agency model execution, which are now more important than ever, continue to prevail.
19. Gain Capital: (forex.com) “no material adverse financial impact”. They note that they increased margin requirements on CHF to 5% back in September. Update: they actually say they made a gain on the Swiss move.
20. HotForex: “Operating as normal”. From their letter to clients: “We would like to reassure you that HotForex is operating as normal, and was not affected in any material way.Our strict Risk Management procedures minimized the impact of this event. Furthermore, we have stayed true to our motto of Honesty, Openness and Transparency. As testament to our commitment to fairness, all negative account balances have been reset to zero and any clients that bought CHF have been paid in”.
21. IBFX: “no material negative impact” – see more under TradeStation Group.
22. IC Markets: business as usual. From the statement: “although had a few negative balances predominantly due to pricing anomalies from our LPs which we are in the process of adjusting, it is business as usual”
23. IG: The group was the first to come out and they announced that they may be facing losses of up to 30 million pounds. Here is a quote from their statement: “The precise level of the impact will be partially dependent on the Company’s ability to recover client debts, but in total it will not exceed, from market and credit exposure”. There is a report  that IG is now looking to buy forex brokers.
24. Interactive Brokers: This broker says that several of its customers suffered losses in excess of their deposit with the company: “Such debits amount to approximately $120 million, less than 2.5% of our net worth”.
25. Iron FX: The Cyprus based broker reports “business as usual”. Here is the statement: “IronFX Global Limited was not affected by these events due to our strong risk management systems and procedures and we continue complying well with our capital regulatory requirements under all regulatory bodies we have licenses. We would therefore like to inform our clients that we continue conducting our business as usual. Feel free to contact our account managers around the world should you have any questions”.
26. LCG: The London Capital Group says it is well capitalized and that the SNBomb had no material impact. It does not expect losses to exceed 1.7 million pounds. LCG operates in various markets and not only forex.
27. MahiFX: “Business as usual” says the broker: “Risk management is at the heart of what we do and the machine performed admirably,” said David Cooney, MahiFX CEO. “Despite market conditions our systems and trading progressed as usual and we look forward to continuing to provide clients with the highest levels of service”. Full details here.
28. Markets.com: “business as usual”. The Cyprus based broker says it actually made profits and “this extreme volatility didn’t impact the firm’s strong financial position. Thanks to the company’s robust risk management policies, the Company enjoyed a profitable trading day in yesterday’s session and didn’t have any negative impact from the Swiss Franc’s extreme volatility”
29. MIB: “minimal impact”: and say: “Our Forex customers on all of our integrated platforms, including our own MBT Desktop Pro platform, cTrader, and MetaTrader, saw almost no lapses in trading availability. There were definitely fast market conditions in pairs like the USD/CHF and EUR/CHF that caused price gaps for some customer orders, but overall, the impact was immaterial”
30. OANDA: Released a statement about honoring all trade executions and will be issuing withdrawals as normal. They have been suffering losses as liquidity vanished but state: “OANDA did not re-quote or amend any CHF cross client trades. We even took the further step of forgiving all negative client balances that were caused when clients could not close out their positions fast enough”. In addition, the company declined to buy competitors: “We actually had conversations with a number of firms that were looking for potential buyers during the course of the day,” Oanda CEO Ed Eger said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg today. “We ultimately decided not to do any of that.”
31. OctaFX: “no charges inflicted on clients” and “fully reliable and solvent”. Here is more: “OctaFX demonstrated its high reliability: being devoted to our clients, we didn’t inflict any changes upon CHF cross clients trades. However, following the usual company policy we restored all negative client balances that occurred due to the fact that clients were unprepared to these rapid changes… OctaFX remains fully reliable and solvent despite the recent events. All the trades are performed according to the operational company standards. We are proud to confirm our stability and integrity”
32. One Financial Markets: “unaffected”. The London based broker said: “The statements from Alpari and others over the last twenty four hours will enhance our position in the industry as one of the most secure FCA regulated brokers. “We take a responsible and professional approach to Risk Management throughout our business and clients can be confident they are dealing with a financially sound company, despite the devastation that others have experienced. It is very much business as usual at One Financial Markets”.
33. Orbex: “full capacity”. Here is the statement: “We would like to take this opportunity to assure you that despite the extreme volatility the markets have experienced over the past few days, which has cast its shadow over many forex brokers, we are still proudly serving our clients at full capacity and our operations have not been negatively affected.”
34. Pepperstone: “business as usual” – They state that they hold capital “well in excess of our ASIC regulatory requirements”.
35. Plus500: “no material impact’. The broker also said that it was in fact profitable for the day, thanks to the robustness of its risk management policies.
36. Saxo Bank: They say that they will revisit Swiss franc trades and that “clients may suffer”. All executed fills will be revisited, ammended and this may result in a “worse execution rate than the originally filled level”.
37. Swissquote: They set aside 25 million CHF due to Swiss Franc volatility. Here is more: Being a Swiss bank, Swissquote retains a solid capital buffer, as the company stated that even after the provision its core Tier 1 capital ratio amounts to 17%. Update: the company activated the provision of 25 million francs.
38. ThinkForex: “business as usual” but CHF trading remains at “close only”. The Australian broker says: “We continue to hold capital well in excess of all ASIC regulatory requirements, and confirm that trading on all CHF markets is currently “close only”. Clients with existing open positions are free to hold these positions, and can close them at their convenience. As markets return to normal, we expect trading on CHF markets to resume again. We will keep clients notified in due course”
39. TradeStation Group: “no material negative impact”. The Tokyo traded company said: “Swiss central bank’s decision announced yesterday to abolish its three-year-old policy of capping the Swiss franc against the euro has had no material negative impact on the financial condition of its IBFX/TradeStation Forex or IBFX Australia Pty Ltd operating subsidiaries, or any of its other operating subsidiaries, including TradeStation Securities, Inc. or TradeStation Europe Limited”
40. TradeView: “business as usual”: The broker than has many clients in Latin America says “We are proud to say we were able to calmly navigate the rough waters during yesterday’s Swiss storm”
41. Varengold Bank: “continues operations undeterred”. The German broker said: “Varengold Bank AG would like to confirm that the extreme volatility experienced yesterday in the currency markets did not affect the financial stability of the bank or it’s clients. The combination of being a German regulated bank with a conservative risk management policy has paid off and Varengold continues to have a strong balance sheet and business ethics”
42. XTB: “unaffected”. The UK broker also explains why they were not hurt and calls the SNB “callous” and “irresponsible”. Here’s part of what they said: “I’m happy to say that at XTB we’ve not been affected. In fact, it has been business as usual for us. Some have called us lucky – but 2 months ago our trading team made the decision to reduce our leverage limit on CHF pairs to 1:50 (2%), so our exposure to the movement has been effectively risk managed. That’s not luck. Looking at Excel and Alpari, who advertised 1:400 and 1:500 leverage on their FX pairs respectively, you can see why such a dramatic movement has caused so much damage”

For more news about the forex industry, please check out Forex Magnates (specifically this page) andLeap Rate. You can see headlines from both sites on our Forex Tools page.

Here is our full coverage of the shock SNB decision

In our latest podcast we analyze the SNBomb, do an ECB Preview, discuss US wages, dive into Saudi costs and the look at the Aussie