Fransesc Riverola is doing a top notch job at FX Street keeping traders up to date about the latest regulatory changes in Switzerland. He has sent out questionnaires to the Swim FX Broker community and several have responded, most recently Crown Forex who has stated they are applying for a banking license.
Forex Street Weblog: Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers - Crown Forex S.A response

Crown Forex’s CEO was quoted as saying:

BINGO. He is dead on. This is why I started the Swiss Dealer Dead Pool. The gig is up for the schlock shops in Switzerland. Either get a banking license or in the words of Der Terminator “GET OUT!” Firms will need to have a minimum $9 million in firm capital and meet a whole variety of accounting requirements in order to get a banking license.

The CEO of Crown Forex closed his remarks by saying:

Here an updated Dead Pool for the trading public.

Firms that claim they are applying for a banking license
1) ACM
2) Fibo Group
3) Crown Forex
4) DukasCopy
5) MIGfx
6) GFX Group (forex.ch)

Firms that are fleeing Swiss Regulation
1) Masterforex. Their business office is listed in Switzerland but they are registered in the Seychelles and have stated they do not need to get a banking license.
2) forex-swiss. FXCH, despite the fact they are NAMED "Forex Swiss" claim registration in Dominica. This is an odd company that has claimed multiple office addresses over the years including, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, Iran, and the United States. Today they are claiming they have offices in Dominica and the United Kingdom. Tomorrow who knows, they could claim a mailing address in Tibet. Beware this firm.
3) Prime4X. Their head office is in Switzerland but they have stated they are applying for a license in Cyprus.

Firms that are no longer accepting customers or have been shutdown
1) WestCapFX
2) Tradex Swiss AG
3) Finex
4) Aleccohfx

Firms that refuse to comment
1) Swiss Direkt
2) Tadawulfx
3) Advised Trading

As always conduct your due diligence and make sure the firm you trade with is regulated and legit.

thank you,great work.

With all these bogus claims from small time brokers claiming they are regulated because they hold a “certificate” they managed to pull out of a cereal box it is hard to know what to believe these days when a firm states they are “licensed.”

And perhaps no firm straddles the line between licensed and unregulated more than a firm by the name of GCI Financial. A reader asked me to provide some background on GCI recently and after doing a quick Internet search I found myself once again swimming in the deepest, darkest, murkiest depths of the Forex Ocean in search of that most dangerous dorsal finned predator of all- the offshore FX boiler-room.

GCI appears to have been started back in the 1990’s and used to be a U.S. based company with its CEO, Mitch Vasquez, living in Wilton, CT. It didn’t take too many clicks of the mouse to discover that GCI had been busted by the CFTC under the headline “CFTC CRACKS DOWN ON FOREIGN CURRENCY SCAMS NATIONWIDE.”
CFTC Press Release 4611-02

The complaint itself charged GCI for violating the Commodity Exchange Act. In short, the CFTC was taking GCI to court because they had not registered with the NFA (Hello FXDD! This could someday happen to you!)
http://www.cftc.gov/files/enf/02orders/enfgci-order.pdf

Also cited in this lawsuit was Vazquez. In 2002, Vazquez and GCI settled the suit and as part of the settlement Vazquez paid a $100,000 fine and agreed to

Sounds pretty clear to me. Basically, Vazquez and GCI were expected to close their doors and get out of the FX business.

But apparently GCI didn’t see it that way. Instead, they submerged beneath the water and headed to Belize. Well at least their “State of the Art” dealing room fled to Belize. But Vazquez doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere as a FEC filing showed he contributed $2000 to George Bush’s Presidential Campaign in 2004 where he listed an address in New Canaan, CT.
MITCHELL VAZQUEZ Donations -- Huffington Post

Meanwhile in Switzerland (cue up Jaws music)…

According to the gossip on the bulletin boards Vazquez had apparently branched out into the notorious Swiss Market. Rumor has it that GCI and GFX (Forex.CH) are the same firm. This was news to me. But several people have stated that Vazquez is also a director at GFX and also points out that the websites of GCI and GFX are remarkably similar and also housed on the same servers?
Forums - GFX Group SA - anyone has experience?
GFX Group SA
GFX Group Reviews | GFX Group forex Ratings | gfxsa.com reviews and ratings by Forex Peace Army

Also, it appears that GFX has recently gotten into some trouble with the Swiss Government according to one trader who cited this (translation welcome if anyone speaks Francais):
Renseignements internet du Registre du Commerce

As for GCI, it claims registration in Belize and you can actually verify they are in fact licensed by the regulatory authorities there:
ABOUT IFSC - International Financial Services Commission

Strangely, GCI doesn’t provide this link on their website which would allow traders to verify this independently which I just did as the Savior is nothing if not fair and balanced.

The reason GCI may be quiet about their regulatory status with Belize officials is because the IFSC does not actually do much aside from collect fees and provide “guidelines” to businesses. In fact, they state on their own website:
ABOUT IFSC - International Financial Services Commission

Bwahahaha! As if a forex firm that has been driven out of the United States for being a “scam” is going to properly “self-regulate” itself. This tells you about all you need to know about the quality of Belize regulation.

So what should traders take from all this? Common sense would dictate that traders avoid GCI. Their compliance history is poor and their current regulators in Belize clearly don’t give a damn what they do so long as they pay their bills on time. At the end of the day GCI is just another shark in the water. Here’s hoping someone harpoons them and sends them to the bottom of the ocean from whence they can never be dredged up again.

This is going to be a post rife with Texas sized clichés. How can it not be with a company with a name like “eToro” that has a logo with a pair of bull horns jutting out of it?

First of all who are these guys? Well they are one the newest FX brokers in the market who are taking a very novel approach to currency trading. They also have ties to the online gambling rackets as their CTO is David Ring who was a key R&D leader at Israeli-based 888.com (a major online casino and poker operator) according to this feature article that came out last fall:
eToro Makes Forex Trade Child’s Play

But this Israeli firm’s ties go much deeper than to just an Internet gambling website (and please spare me the term “gaming.”) They also have connections to none other than Shimon Peres, the President of Israel. It appears Shimon Peres’ son, Chimi Peres, is one of eToro’s private investors:
Pitango Venture Capital - Nechemia (Chemi) J. Peres

So how is eToro standing out in the marketplace aside from their exotic resume? Well they have created the first forex video game. You have to see the screen shots to believe them:
http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/etoro_match.jpg
http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/etoro_marathon.jpg

But aside from the cute cartoon characters inhabiting its software (which led one trader to state eToro should rename itself “eTarded”) the truth is eToro is just shoveling the same old Bull at traders. What makes me say that? Well, when I asked them if they were regulated they gave me the ol’ Texas Two Step. Check out this chat transcript below:

eToro is an Israeli company with a Cyprus address and a British Virgin Islands Registration. Now what kind of business arrangement is that? That is about as unaccountable as you can get. When I asked their chat representative if they have a Cyprus SEC license (which they should have if they have an office in Cyprus and are soliciting customers from Cyrpus) the rep says “of course.”

When I point out that eToro is not listed as having a license at the Cyprus SEC website I’m directed to another company that supposedly has a license, retailfx.com, I find they don’t have a license either. At which point the customer service rep breaks down and blabbers about their arrangement with IFX.

Clearly eToro talks the regulatory talk but they don’t walk the regulatory walk.

So what about this link with IFX? Well it turns out that eToro can’t accept U.S. customers. Hmmm. That’s strange. Plenty of offshore forex brokers accept U.S. customers. Why not eToro? Instead, eToro has to rely on IFX who is apparently white labeling eToro’s Sony Playstation, er, forex trading software.

It’s pretty obvious why eToro can’t accept U.S. customers. It’s because they are nothing more than a gambling shop and online casinos outside the U.S. are not allowed to accept U.S. customers. eToro’s lawyers are obviously worried that Uncle Sam will come after them with a vengeance if they start soliciting customers (not to mention the MGM Grand, Powerball, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and Mike Huckabee.)

What does that tell you about the kind of dealing desk these guys are running? The firm is a straight up casino- they only make money if you lose money. It is market making on anabolic horse steroids. In short, it is every currency trader’s worst nightmare come true.

By the way I sent eToro an email asking for clarification on their regulation. Of course there was no reply. Lord somebody fence these guys in…

Forexsavior
Do you know anything about a brker named TradeView? It is part of the Rosenthal group, but that doesn't make it trusworthy. From what i have noticed on their demo platform, their server is not to trustworthy. It not only crashed on the demo, but it crashed during Non Farm Payroll the other day. Not a good thing. They claim to have a ECN like feed, but they are running MT$. I don't know of anyone that has successfuly done this yet.

Rosenthal Collins is a more well established firm and I am not too focused on these firms as the danger for fraud is much less.

Here are the latest adjusted net capital figuress for U.S. based forex brokers:
http://www.cftc.gov/stellent/groups/...cmdata0308.pdf

Above $20 Million
Oanda $163,000,000
FXCM $87,000,000
GFT Forex $76,000,000
Gain Capital $73,000,000
Interbank FX $28,000,000
I Trade FX $27,000,000

Below $20 Million
PFG $19,000,000
FX Solutions $17,000,000
ODL $14,700,000
CMS $13,900,000
GFS Forex $11,000,000
IFX $10,600,000
Ikon $8,800,000
Alpari $8,800,000
CMC $8,300,000
Friedberg Mercantile $8,000,000
Forex Club $7,900,000
Hotspot $7,700,000
MB Trading $7,700,000
Easy Forex $7,200,000
Money Garden $6,600,000
Bacera $5,500,000
Advanced Markets $5,100,000

Six weeks ago I reported on the danger of trading with FXDD because they were the only forex firm in the United States that had neglected to get a license from the NFA.
http://www.forex-tsd.com/198698-post298.html

Well it appears FXDD took my criticism to heart.

All I can say is, it's about time! Count that as another victory for retail forex traders. The Savior's work goes on...

I use FXDD because they aren't NFA registered. TYVFM. I guess it is time for me to find a new broker now that FXDD is getting NFA registered. I've read the NFA proposals and documents, the NFA is an insane for profit business. I'm tempted to crush the NFA for the good of the industry.

The big news this week is the farm bill which is close to passing the House and Senate. Inside that farm bill are provisions that would require U.S. forex dealers to have a minimum adjusted net capital of $20 million in addition to requirements that all introducing brokers be registered with the CFTC.

The big question is if Bush vetoes the bill will the Congress have enough votes to override his veto? According to this story the override vote will be a very close one:
Farm bill conferees lambaste press, administration

Of course, the forex provisions are a sideshow in this fight, which has become a fight primarily over farm subsidies. The $20 million capital requirement has been agreed upon by the powers that be. So now the question is not if, but when. A veto override means this capital requirement will be enforced by the end of the year for sure.

Developing…