FXCM Inc. said Monday that it plans to focus its institutional
operations on its wholesale business, as the New York-based
foreign-exchange broker sells off noncore assets to repay debt.
"With the pending disposition of institutional noncore assets we
are now purely focused on mobilizing more resources to our
wholesale business, where we have seen tremendous success," said
Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM's global head of institutional sales.
FXCM has been selling operations after it was left chasing $276
million from retail clients who were caught on the wrong side of
bets on the Swiss franc in January. To continue operations, FXCM
secured a $300 million loan from Jefferies Group LLC parent
Leucadia National Corp.
FXCM said the institutional business, FXCM Pro, will continue
serving retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market
banks. The business has proved to be among FXCM's most resilient
since January, Mr. Mulvihill said.
Meanwhile, its FXCM Prime business will focus on high frequency
trading customers.
FXCM announced in late March that it had agreed to sell its
Japan business to a brokerage unit of e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc.
for $62 million. Earlier this month, it announced it would sell its
Faros Trading LLC unit to Jefferies Group.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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