IG eyes Irish market

How much room is there for a new player in Ireland’s brokerage market? Well, IG Group is betting plenty, taking aim at long-established giants it says have left customers underserved and overcharged.

Ireland is often cited as a modern economy, supported by a strong financial services sector that has benefited from a low corporate tax rate and the relocation of firms from London after Brexit. Despite this growth, the Irish brokerage market has long been dominated by just two firms: Goodbody and Davy.

IG is promising Irish investors access to thousands of stocks and ETFs commission-free, with overall costs just a fraction of what the long-established incumbents charge, according to its UK & Ireland managing director.

Capital.com expands Bulgaria hub

Another CFD broker breaking into new markets is Capital.com. The company expanded its operations in Bulgaria, increasing its local headcount by 51% over the past year. The country will serve as the broker’s main hub for customer service.

[#highlighted-links#]

The expansion comes after a strong third quarter, with Capital.com reporting total trading volumes of $744 billion. Several of the company's asset classes showed growth: equity trading rose 5.2% quarter-on-quarter, while crypto securities increased 53.9%. FX and commodities declined 17.1% and 12.2%, reflecting typical seasonal trends.

CFD broker FBS halts marketing months after India exit

Meanwhile, CFD broker active in emerging markets FBS, paused all marketing activities indefinitely. The decision came just months after the broker suspended its services in India, signaling a strategic shift in its operations.

The text at the footer of FBS.com website
The disclaimer in the footer of FBS.com website

The broker said the pause is intended to allow a focus on product development, though it provided no further details. The impact is visible on FBS’s social media, which has not been updated since 31 October 2025, potentially slowing new client onboarding as outreach to prospective traders is halted.

Singapore CFD market revives after 3-year slump

Could rising trader numbers in Singapore reflect broader APAC market trends? Singapore’s leverage trading market has recorded its first growth in active participants since 2021, with the number of CFD and forex traders rising 3% over the past year, according to Investment Trends’ 2025 Singapore Leverage Trading Report released today.

Finance Magnates Intelligence estimates the number of active traders at 39,000, indicating that the total potential CFD trader base in Singapore has expanded to around 75,000. The rebound signals a gradual recovery in market activity after years of stagnation.

What’s next for CFD brokers after Vietnam’s $200M forex scam?

Offshore forex and CFD brokers are stepping up efforts to enter the Vietnamese market. Many are launching extensive online advertising campaigns, hiring local country managers, and in some cases, opening representative offices.

Despite these moves, their operations in Vietnam remain in a legal grey zone, and some may even be operating illegally. At the same time, Vietnamese authorities have begun cracking down on forex trading scams, targeting schemes that are believed to have defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

London hosts finance leaders

And in one of the major industry highlights of the week: The Finance Magnates London Summit 2025 was held at Magazine London, following a Networking Blitz at The Folly.

The summit featured panels and sessions covering AI adoption, liquidity evolution, cross-border payments, regulation, and the digital asset economy, with a particular focus on retail and forex brokers.

The discussion centered on careers in brokerage and trading services, exploring key aspects of the industry. Topics included client engagement, CRM practices, and strategies for building and maintaining strong professional relationships.

CME group hit by data center outage

Even before the dust had settled on the Cloudflare outage, CME Group ran into its own data center issue on Friday. The US derivatives giant CME Group halted trading on its platforms after a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers. The disruption affected its major currency platform as well as futures markets across foreign exchange, commodities, treasuries and equities.

CyrusOne is headquartered in Dallas and operates more than 55 data centres across the US, Europe and Japan. It also remains unclear which specific facilities were impacted by the cooling problem.

Executive moves: Trade Nation, Equiti, tZERO

In the executive move roundup, Trade Nation appointed Kypros “Kyp” Zoumidou as Managing Director, who joins CEO Jon Noble. Both executives previously held senior roles at IG Group.

At the same time, Equiti Group named Patrick Pitchappa as Chief Information Security Officer and Abdullatif Manlla as Head of Compliance and MLRO for the UAE.

Lastly, tZERO Group hired Mike Diedrichs to lead its global sales operation, aiming to leverage his experience in digital asset platforms to turn recent infrastructure upgrades into revenue growth.

CFTC widens Polymarket’s U.S. trading

In matters regulations, the CFTC issued an Amended Order of Designation to Polymarket, authorizing it to operate a fully regulated, intermediated trading venue in the United States. The move will allow U.S. users to access Polymarket contracts through futures commission merchants and standard brokerage channels.

The approval places Polymarket under the same regulatory framework as federally supervised exchanges. It also clears the way for the platform to resume U.S. operations after a years-long regulatory dispute that led to U.S. user access being blocked in 2022.

Robinhood’s prediction market tops 9 billion contracts

Still with the much-hyped prediction markets: Robinhood is pushing further into prediction markets and derivatives, reporting strong early adoption of its new contracts and outlining plans to launch a regulated futures and derivatives exchange. The move marks a significant expansion of the company’s trading offerings beyond traditional equities and crypto.

Since introducing prediction market contracts in March, Robinhood says more than nine billion contracts have been traded, with over one million users participating on the platform. These figures highlight rapid growth in engagement as the company deepens its presence in the prediction-market space.

Robinhood shares rose more than 10% on Wednesday after the retail brokerage said it plans to launch its own futures and derivatives exchange, marking a further expansion into prediction markets.

But are the regulations favorable? A federal court in Nevada dealt a significant blow to prediction market operators this week, ruling that financial contracts based on sports event outcomes qualify as gambling, even when offered by platforms registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Revolut valuation surpasses Barclays

In the fintech space, Revolut reached a private valuation of $75 billion following a secondary share sale, pushing the digital bank ahead of established institutions such as Barclays, NatWest, and Deutsche Bank. The new valuation underscored the company’s growing prominence in global finance and its position as one of the world’s most valuable fintechs.

The share sale, completed on November 24, 2025, marks a substantial jump from Revolut’s roughly $45 billion valuation in August 2024. The latest figure represents a 66–67% increase in a little over a year, equivalent to about £57 billion in UK terms.

OpenAI upstages Apple on AI

Lastly, Apple is reportedly working to license Google’s Gemini model for Siri, while OpenAI has acquired Jony Ive’s hardware startup, io, and hired several former Apple employees to advance its own device initiatives.

OpenAI’s purchase of io, founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, is reportedly valued at about $6.5 billion. In addition to the acquisition, the company has significantly expanded its hardware and engineering teams.

Source: Finance Magnates