Foreign-exchange brokerage FXCM Inc. said its retail customer
trading volume increased significantly in January from a year
earlier and edged up from December.
"While it was a challenging month for FXCM due to the
unprecedented movement of the Swiss Franc on January 15 and the
resulting negative balances of a number of our clients, we were
able to generate our second best month ever on the retail side,"
Chief Executive Drew Niv said, adding the company received net
inflows of client funds for the first week of February.
The brokerage accepted a $300 million rescue package from
Jefferies Group LLC parent Leucadia National Corp. in January in
the wake of steep client losses stemming an unexpected surge in the
Swiss franc.
The client losses, which totaled about $225 million, stemmed
from the surprise decision of the Swiss National Bank to end its
cap on the franc's exchange ratio to the euro.
Retail customer trading volume grew to $450 billion in January,
up 32% from the previous January and 3% higher than December.
Average retail customer trading volume per day of $21.4 billion
increased 38% from January 2014 and 2% from December.
The firm saw an average of 662,080 retail client trades per day
for the month, increases of 61% from January 2014 and 11% higher
than the previous month.
Mr. Niv also said FXCM's institutional business was affected
somewhat in the month by the Swiss bank decision, and a number of
its institutional customers' prime brokers initially disconnected
from FXCM. However, all but one are back with the brokerage.
Institutional customer trading volume of $255 billion in January
was 39% higher than the previous January and 21% lower than
December.
Write to Lauren Pollock at lauren.pollock@wsj.com
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