Next Week News

Defying the guidelines of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK will now allow leverage on government bonds offered to retail traders to reach 30:1.

With government bonds, under the ESMA’s guidelines, brokers are allowed to offer leverage no greater than 5:1. In the wake of Brexit, however, FCA seem to be trying to coin its own rules.

ESMA reacted with a statement that “the proposed leverage limit would result in divergence from the leverage limits applied by product providers subject to other national measures.”

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The Israeli-regulated division of retail broker AvaTrade – ATrade – was fined 500,000 shekels ($141,000) by the Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) on Wednesday. The brokerage has committed regulatory infringements back in 2016 and 2017, and will be fined another 500,000 shekels if it breaches similar regulations in the next two years, as the ISA also imposed a conditional fine.

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Citing a lack of clarity about when the risks to the U.S. economy will be resolved, the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy showed the central bank intends to remain flexible regarding future changes to interest rates. The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held in late July showed members intend to pay close attention to the implications of incoming data.

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The latest major forex hub which allowed retail clients to use higher leverage, Australia, is about to cap leverage at 1:20, and ban binary options altogether. In an attempt to address “significant detriment to retail clients” resulting from trading in binary options and CFDs, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) proposed product intervention measures similar to those applied by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) last year.

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The Dutch Central Bank announced new rules for all companies dealing with crypto currencies that will take effect from January 2020.

All companies offering exchange services between crypto and fiat currencies and vise versa will have to register with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) before 10 January 2020.

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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is widely expected to announced a fresh round of stimulus measures on Thursday to rev up the euro area economy, a final push before the expiry of his term at the end of October. However, the group of hawkish policymakers opposed to a restart of the quantitative easing, or QE, has grown, casting doubts on the expectations for a big stimulus package.

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Acting on a tip from the Chinese intelligence agency the Philippine police has arrested 277 Chinese nationals working for online forex and crypto scammers.

The arrests were made in Pasig City - one of the fast growing special economic zones established recently by the Philippine government.

The ride, that took place on September 11th and was lead by Bureau of Immigration agents, targeted the headquarters of Grapefruit Services Inc., which acted as an authorized service provider of Golden Millennial Quickpay Inc. Ltd., an offshore crypto currency company licensed by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA).

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Reflecting an extension of the volatility seen in recent months, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing U.S. new home sales rebounded strongly in the month of August following a sharp pullback in the previous month. The Commerce Department said new home sales surged up by 7.1 percent to an annual rate of 713,000 in August.

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The World Bank forecast economic growth across Europe and Central Asia to ease this year reflecting the slowdown in both Russia and Turkey. According to the latest World Bank Economic Update for Europe and Central Asia, released Wednesday, growth in the emerging and developing countries of Europe and Central Asia is set to ease to a four-year low of 1.8 percent this year from 3.2 percent in 2018.

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Global economy is set to expand at the slowest pace in a decade this year amid weak manufacturing momentum, and rising trade and geopolitical tensions, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. The global lender cut the growth forecast for this year to 3 percent from 3.3 percent projected in April, in its latest World Economic Outlook.

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