What does dispute decision within the CFD and retail FX trade truly appear like in apply? FM Intelligence analyzed all 1,468 retail FX and CFD complaints dealt with by the Monetary Fee in 2025. It discovered that brokers weren’t at fault in 94.8% of circumstances, primarily based on choices by an unbiased panel of 18 specialists. Nonetheless, these outcomes not often achieve the identical visibility because the complaints themselves.
Points like delayed withdrawals usually unfold shortly on platforms resembling Reddit or evaluate websites, whereas the ultimate rulings obtain far much less consideration. The information additionally exhibits a niche between claims and precise payouts. Merchants collectively sought $21.4 million, however solely $496,304 was awarded.
Most disputes had been comparatively small, with a median declare of $397.50. Withdrawal delays had been the commonest concern, accounting for 558 circumstances, but 92.8% had been resolved in favor of brokers, sometimes because of routine checks, financial institution processing instances, or bonus phrases slightly than wrongdoing.
XTB tops Polish account development, tempo slows
In the meantime, XTB remained the main dealer for Polish account openings in Could, including 48,226 new accounts, in keeping with knowledge from the Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW). This introduced its whole to 1,087,740 accounts, greater than double the dimensions of its closest competitor.
|
Rank |
Establishment |
Accounts (Could 2026) |
m/m |
y/y |
|
1 |
XTB |
1,087,740 |
+48,226 |
+568,909 |
|
2 |
mBank Brokerage |
560,967 |
+5,357 |
+76,772 |
|
3 |
BM Pekao |
210,079 |
+962 |
+5,023 |
|
4 |
ING Financial institution Śląski Brokerage |
205,897 |
+955 |
+8,061 |
|
5 |
DM BOŚ |
195,540 |
+1,087 |
+17,756 |
|
6 |
BM PKO BP |
186,233 |
+858 |
+20,189 |
|
— |
Whole market |
2,856,520 |
+59,444 |
+713,71 |
Nonetheless, the tempo of development has slowed in comparison with earlier within the 12 months, when the dealer added 68,300 accounts in January and simply over 51,000 in February.
Month-to-month additions fell under 50,000 in April, the identical month XTB surpassed the 1 million account mark. Regardless of the slowdown, XTB continues to widen its lead over rivals. mBank’s brokerage arm, the second-largest participant, reached 560,967 accounts after including 5,357 in Could. BM Pekao adopted with 210,079 accounts, whereas ING Financial institution Śląski’s brokerage unit held 205,897, leaving a big hole between XTB and the remainder of the market.
eToro eyes wealth-tech offers, weighs banking licence
Within the fintch area, eToro is exploring acquisitions because it seems to increase its wealth-tech providing. CEO Yoni Assia confirmed that the corporate is in talks to purchase two companies, one in the US and one other in a distinct market. Chatting with the Monetary Instances, Assia mentioned eToro is working with funding bankers on the potential offers. The corporate, which went public final 12 months, additionally confirmed to Finance Magnates that it’s reviewing a number of alternatives however famous that discussions are nonetheless at an early stage.
Assia described eToro as “very acquisitive,” including that pursuing offers was one of many motivations behind its itemizing. Whereas no particulars on deal dimension had been disclosed, he mentioned the corporate is focusing on companies that may strengthen its wealth providing and help world enlargement, significantly within the US. As well as, eToro is contemplating making use of for a banking licence as a part of a broader push into the funds area.
Axi enters Mauritius with seller licence
Amid rising dealer curiosity in Mauritius as an offshore hub, Axi expanded its regulatory footprint by securing a neighborhood license. The approval permits the corporate to function as a full-service funding seller within the area. Axi Markets Mauritius was granted a Class SEC-2.1B Funding Seller license on Could 14, 2026.
The authorization, confirmed to Finance Magnates by an organization consultant, permits the agency to hold out full-service seller actions, excluding underwriting. The dealer holds a number of licenses globally, together with authorization from the UK Monetary Conduct Authority for its London operations.
Brokers should not the one ones eyeing Mauritius, as proprietary buying and selling companies are more and more following go well with. Prop buying and selling companies that moved to the Comoros after MetaQuotes tightened white-label guidelines in early 2024 are actually shifting towards Mauritius. Corporations resembling FundingPips, FundedNext (by way of FNmarkets), Hola Prime, and Finotive Markets have not too long ago secured licenses from the Mauritius Monetary Providers Fee (FSC), with a number of now working their brokerage companies from there as an alternative of the Comoros.
The sooner transfer to the Comoros was largely pushed by necessity, as companies sought methods to retain entry to MetaTrader platforms after restrictions disrupted their fashions. Nonetheless, licenses issued within the Comoros have confronted credibility considerations.
Robinhood to chop 10% of employees
Layoffs throughout monetary companies present little signal of slowing. Robinhood plans to chop about 10% of its full-time workforce, impacting roughly 290 workers, as a part of a restructuring effort geared toward enhancing effectivity. The transfer comes regardless of robust buying and selling exercise, together with excessive demand for its prediction markets, which noticed 8.8 billion occasion contracts traded within the first quarter of 2026.
Buying and selling platform Robinhood cuts 10% of workforce to flatten administration layers https://t.co/wdvMsO7vWy
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 16, 2026
In response to Reuters, the layoffs are supposed to simplify the corporate’s construction and cut back administration layers. CEO Vlad Tenev mentioned the aim is to hurry up decision-making and keep away from working with too many layers of administration, even because the enterprise continues to carry out strongly.
“You’ll be able to’t develop by chopping”: Trieu on AI in finance
As AI adoption accelerates throughout finance, questions are rising about its influence on jobs and profession paths. Huy Nguyen Trieu, co-founder of the Centre for Finance, Know-how and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), argues that the time period “Synthetic Intelligence” not matches, because the hole between human and machine capabilities has narrowed considerably.
He prefers “Digital Intelligence,” noting that expertise can now deal with advanced duties like drafting authorized briefs or constructing buying and selling platforms. As adoption grows, the monetary trade is more and more questioning what this implies for conventional profession paths, particularly as some retail brokers have already linked AI to latest layoffs.
In 2026, extra companies are pointing to AI as a motive for chopping employees, though there may be rising skepticism that automation is usually used to justify value reductions and enhance monetary optics. Trieu believes this displays a deeper concern, the place firms concentrate on decreasing headcount as an alternative of utilizing AI to drive development. He argues that treating workers primarily as a value centre dangers limiting the broader alternatives AI might carry to the trade.
The place good cash finds worth
Small- and mid-cap shares stay among the many least effectively priced areas of worldwide fairness markets, creating alternatives for energetic traders to search out undervalued firms. It’s extensively accepted that share costs don’t all the time mirror an organization’s true worth, which permits traders to focus on companies with robust long-term development potential.
MARKET RECAP 📉 What a wild and loopy day, the S&P 500 was up in morning however closed the day down 1.2%, dropping round $1 trillion in market cap 😳
The Fed left rates of interest unchanged, as anticipated.
What the heck is happening??! Let’s speak about it 🗣️ https://t.co/xm4C82iTbG pic.twitter.com/5WqLms6cfw
— Peter Tuchman (@EinsteinoWallSt) June 17, 2026
To determine such alternatives, traders use a variety of metrics, together with analyzing income streams, specializing in firms that may profit from trade shifts, and recognizing these positioned for earnings development. For instance, Constancy Worldwide’s International Future Leaders technique begins with a universe of about 1,000 small- and mid-cap firms and filters out these with poor ESG rankings earlier than deciding on potential investments.
Tokenized SpaceX bets on 4 crypto exchanges fall brief
SpaceX’s long-awaited market debut has uncovered cracks within the promise of tokenized equities. A number of crypto platforms have promoted tokenization as a technique to disrupt conventional inventory markets, however the latest cancellation of tokenized SpaceX share choices highlights its limitations when the underlying asset is unavailable.
Binance, Bybit, Bitget Pockets, and MEXC all withdrew their tokenized IPO campaigns and refunded customers after failing to safe the precise shares behind the tokens.
On June 12, the identical day SpaceX started buying and selling on Nasdaq beneath the ticker SPCX, the platforms confirmed that xStocks, the supplier answerable for sourcing the shares, couldn’t ship the allocations. Bybit mentioned it obtained no shares, Binance pointed to circumstances past its management, whereas Bitget Pockets and MEXC additionally cited an absence of obtainable allocation, main all 4 to cancel their choices and return funds to subscribers.
Binance vows dedication to MiCA licence as EU exit danger looms
Binance faces the danger of dropping entry to the European Union market as a key regulatory resolution approaches beneath the EU’s new MiCA regime. If the crypto alternate doesn’t safe approval, it’s going to not be capable of serve customers throughout the bloc beginning subsequent month. Sources cited by Reuters say Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Fee is predicted to reject Binance’s MiCA licence utility.
Beneath MiCA, crypto companies should receive authorization from a nationwide regulator by the top of June to proceed working EU-wide. Binance has mentioned it engaged with the Greek regulator in good religion and believes its utility meets the required requirements.
Perps hit $61.7 trillion
On the identical time, perpetual futures recorded $61.7 trillion in buying and selling quantity final 12 months, in keeping with Reuters, making them an more and more necessary product for the trade. For brokers, providing perps means dealing with steady funding funds, margin and liquidation mechanisms, order routing, and compliance for an instrument that trades 24/7.
A perpetual future provides merchants lengthy or brief publicity to an asset with no mounted expiry date, so positions can stay open so long as margin necessities are met. The product started with crypto property like bitcoin and ether, however brokers are actually extending the identical no-expiry, leveraged construction to FX pairs, equities, metals, and even pre-IPO markets, bringing perps into channels they already serve.
CME sues CFTC in high-stakes perps conflict
Outgoing CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy says the alternate will file a federal lawsuit towards the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) over its resolution to approve crypto perpetual futures in the US. He instructed CNBC’s Quick Cash that the case will particularly problem the CFTC’s late-Could authorization of Kalshi’s BTCPERP contract, the primary regulated crypto perpetual futures product in US markets, together with a associated no-action letter granted to Coinbase.
Duffy, who can be getting ready to step down from his position as CME’s chief government, criticized the CFTC’s dealing with of the approval course of. He argued that the regulator moved too shortly and bypassed what he describes as a compulsory full evaluate for merchandise it has categorised as “novel and complicated.”
In the meantime, Kalshi’s new crypto perpetual futures have generated greater than $5.5 billion in buying and selling quantity of their first two weeks, making them the corporate’s fastest-growing product launch so far. The rollout marks a shift from Kalshi’s unique concentrate on occasion contracts linked to politics, sports activities, and different real-world outcomes towards a broader slice of the derivatives market on its CFTC-regulated alternate.
Highlights from the iFX EXPO Worldwide 2026
Lastly, the iFX EXPO Worldwide 2026, held at Metropolis of Desires Mediterranean, entered its remaining day on Thursday. The occasion gathered brokers, fintech companies, liquidity and fee suppliers, expertise distributors, and different stakeholders from throughout the net buying and selling trade.
Apparently, the Seychelles Monetary Providers Authority was additionally exhibiting on the occasion, selling its offshore regulatory regime on to brokers and different trade contributors.
What does dispute decision within the CFD and retail FX trade truly appear like in apply? FM Intelligence analyzed all 1,468 retail FX and CFD complaints dealt with by the Monetary Fee in 2025. It discovered that brokers weren’t at fault in 94.8% of circumstances, primarily based on choices by an unbiased panel of 18 specialists. Nonetheless, these outcomes not often achieve the identical visibility because the complaints themselves.
Points like delayed withdrawals usually unfold shortly on platforms resembling Reddit or evaluate websites, whereas the ultimate rulings obtain far much less consideration. The information additionally exhibits a niche between claims and precise payouts. Merchants collectively sought $21.4 million, however solely $496,304 was awarded.
Most disputes had been comparatively small, with a median declare of $397.50. Withdrawal delays had been the commonest concern, accounting for 558 circumstances, but 92.8% had been resolved in favor of brokers, sometimes because of routine checks, financial institution processing instances, or bonus phrases slightly than wrongdoing.
XTB tops Polish account development, tempo slows
In the meantime, XTB remained the main dealer for Polish account openings in Could, including 48,226 new accounts, in keeping with knowledge from the Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW). This introduced its whole to 1,087,740 accounts, greater than double the dimensions of its closest competitor.
|
Rank |
Establishment |
Accounts (Could 2026) |
m/m |
y/y |
|
1 |
XTB |
1,087,740 |
+48,226 |
+568,909 |
|
2 |
mBank Brokerage |
560,967 |
+5,357 |
+76,772 |
|
3 |
BM Pekao |
210,079 |
+962 |
+5,023 |
|
4 |
ING Financial institution Śląski Brokerage |
205,897 |
+955 |
+8,061 |
|
5 |
DM BOŚ |
195,540 |
+1,087 |
+17,756 |
|
6 |
BM PKO BP |
186,233 |
+858 |
+20,189 |
|
— |
Whole market |
2,856,520 |
+59,444 |
+713,71 |
Nonetheless, the tempo of development has slowed in comparison with earlier within the 12 months, when the dealer added 68,300 accounts in January and simply over 51,000 in February.
Month-to-month additions fell under 50,000 in April, the identical month XTB surpassed the 1 million account mark. Regardless of the slowdown, XTB continues to widen its lead over rivals. mBank’s brokerage arm, the second-largest participant, reached 560,967 accounts after including 5,357 in Could. BM Pekao adopted with 210,079 accounts, whereas ING Financial institution Śląski’s brokerage unit held 205,897, leaving a big hole between XTB and the remainder of the market.
eToro eyes wealth-tech offers, weighs banking licence
Within the fintch area, eToro is exploring acquisitions because it seems to increase its wealth-tech providing. CEO Yoni Assia confirmed that the corporate is in talks to purchase two companies, one in the US and one other in a distinct market. Chatting with the Monetary Instances, Assia mentioned eToro is working with funding bankers on the potential offers. The corporate, which went public final 12 months, additionally confirmed to Finance Magnates that it’s reviewing a number of alternatives however famous that discussions are nonetheless at an early stage.
Assia described eToro as “very acquisitive,” including that pursuing offers was one of many motivations behind its itemizing. Whereas no particulars on deal dimension had been disclosed, he mentioned the corporate is focusing on companies that may strengthen its wealth providing and help world enlargement, significantly within the US. As well as, eToro is contemplating making use of for a banking licence as a part of a broader push into the funds area.
Axi enters Mauritius with seller licence
Amid rising dealer curiosity in Mauritius as an offshore hub, Axi expanded its regulatory footprint by securing a neighborhood license. The approval permits the corporate to function as a full-service funding seller within the area. Axi Markets Mauritius was granted a Class SEC-2.1B Funding Seller license on Could 14, 2026.
The authorization, confirmed to Finance Magnates by an organization consultant, permits the agency to hold out full-service seller actions, excluding underwriting. The dealer holds a number of licenses globally, together with authorization from the UK Monetary Conduct Authority for its London operations.
Brokers should not the one ones eyeing Mauritius, as proprietary buying and selling companies are more and more following go well with. Prop buying and selling companies that moved to the Comoros after MetaQuotes tightened white-label guidelines in early 2024 are actually shifting towards Mauritius. Corporations resembling FundingPips, FundedNext (by way of FNmarkets), Hola Prime, and Finotive Markets have not too long ago secured licenses from the Mauritius Monetary Providers Fee (FSC), with a number of now working their brokerage companies from there as an alternative of the Comoros.
The sooner transfer to the Comoros was largely pushed by necessity, as companies sought methods to retain entry to MetaTrader platforms after restrictions disrupted their fashions. Nonetheless, licenses issued within the Comoros have confronted credibility considerations.
Robinhood to chop 10% of employees
Layoffs throughout monetary companies present little signal of slowing. Robinhood plans to chop about 10% of its full-time workforce, impacting roughly 290 workers, as a part of a restructuring effort geared toward enhancing effectivity. The transfer comes regardless of robust buying and selling exercise, together with excessive demand for its prediction markets, which noticed 8.8 billion occasion contracts traded within the first quarter of 2026.
Buying and selling platform Robinhood cuts 10% of workforce to flatten administration layers https://t.co/wdvMsO7vWy
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 16, 2026
In response to Reuters, the layoffs are supposed to simplify the corporate’s construction and cut back administration layers. CEO Vlad Tenev mentioned the aim is to hurry up decision-making and keep away from working with too many layers of administration, even because the enterprise continues to carry out strongly.
“You’ll be able to’t develop by chopping”: Trieu on AI in finance
As AI adoption accelerates throughout finance, questions are rising about its influence on jobs and profession paths. Huy Nguyen Trieu, co-founder of the Centre for Finance, Know-how and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), argues that the time period “Synthetic Intelligence” not matches, because the hole between human and machine capabilities has narrowed considerably.
He prefers “Digital Intelligence,” noting that expertise can now deal with advanced duties like drafting authorized briefs or constructing buying and selling platforms. As adoption grows, the monetary trade is more and more questioning what this implies for conventional profession paths, particularly as some retail brokers have already linked AI to latest layoffs.
In 2026, extra companies are pointing to AI as a motive for chopping employees, though there may be rising skepticism that automation is usually used to justify value reductions and enhance monetary optics. Trieu believes this displays a deeper concern, the place firms concentrate on decreasing headcount as an alternative of utilizing AI to drive development. He argues that treating workers primarily as a value centre dangers limiting the broader alternatives AI might carry to the trade.
The place good cash finds worth
Small- and mid-cap shares stay among the many least effectively priced areas of worldwide fairness markets, creating alternatives for energetic traders to search out undervalued firms. It’s extensively accepted that share costs don’t all the time mirror an organization’s true worth, which permits traders to focus on companies with robust long-term development potential.
MARKET RECAP 📉 What a wild and loopy day, the S&P 500 was up in morning however closed the day down 1.2%, dropping round $1 trillion in market cap 😳
The Fed left rates of interest unchanged, as anticipated.
What the heck is happening??! Let’s speak about it 🗣️ https://t.co/xm4C82iTbG pic.twitter.com/5WqLms6cfw
— Peter Tuchman (@EinsteinoWallSt) June 17, 2026
To determine such alternatives, traders use a variety of metrics, together with analyzing income streams, specializing in firms that may profit from trade shifts, and recognizing these positioned for earnings development. For instance, Constancy Worldwide’s International Future Leaders technique begins with a universe of about 1,000 small- and mid-cap firms and filters out these with poor ESG rankings earlier than deciding on potential investments.
Tokenized SpaceX bets on 4 crypto exchanges fall brief
SpaceX’s long-awaited market debut has uncovered cracks within the promise of tokenized equities. A number of crypto platforms have promoted tokenization as a technique to disrupt conventional inventory markets, however the latest cancellation of tokenized SpaceX share choices highlights its limitations when the underlying asset is unavailable.
Binance, Bybit, Bitget Pockets, and MEXC all withdrew their tokenized IPO campaigns and refunded customers after failing to safe the precise shares behind the tokens.
On June 12, the identical day SpaceX started buying and selling on Nasdaq beneath the ticker SPCX, the platforms confirmed that xStocks, the supplier answerable for sourcing the shares, couldn’t ship the allocations. Bybit mentioned it obtained no shares, Binance pointed to circumstances past its management, whereas Bitget Pockets and MEXC additionally cited an absence of obtainable allocation, main all 4 to cancel their choices and return funds to subscribers.
Binance vows dedication to MiCA licence as EU exit danger looms
Binance faces the danger of dropping entry to the European Union market as a key regulatory resolution approaches beneath the EU’s new MiCA regime. If the crypto alternate doesn’t safe approval, it’s going to not be capable of serve customers throughout the bloc beginning subsequent month. Sources cited by Reuters say Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Fee is predicted to reject Binance’s MiCA licence utility.
Beneath MiCA, crypto companies should receive authorization from a nationwide regulator by the top of June to proceed working EU-wide. Binance has mentioned it engaged with the Greek regulator in good religion and believes its utility meets the required requirements.
Perps hit $61.7 trillion
On the identical time, perpetual futures recorded $61.7 trillion in buying and selling quantity final 12 months, in keeping with Reuters, making them an more and more necessary product for the trade. For brokers, providing perps means dealing with steady funding funds, margin and liquidation mechanisms, order routing, and compliance for an instrument that trades 24/7.
A perpetual future provides merchants lengthy or brief publicity to an asset with no mounted expiry date, so positions can stay open so long as margin necessities are met. The product started with crypto property like bitcoin and ether, however brokers are actually extending the identical no-expiry, leveraged construction to FX pairs, equities, metals, and even pre-IPO markets, bringing perps into channels they already serve.
CME sues CFTC in high-stakes perps conflict
Outgoing CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy says the alternate will file a federal lawsuit towards the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) over its resolution to approve crypto perpetual futures in the US. He instructed CNBC’s Quick Cash that the case will particularly problem the CFTC’s late-Could authorization of Kalshi’s BTCPERP contract, the primary regulated crypto perpetual futures product in US markets, together with a associated no-action letter granted to Coinbase.
Duffy, who can be getting ready to step down from his position as CME’s chief government, criticized the CFTC’s dealing with of the approval course of. He argued that the regulator moved too shortly and bypassed what he describes as a compulsory full evaluate for merchandise it has categorised as “novel and complicated.”
In the meantime, Kalshi’s new crypto perpetual futures have generated greater than $5.5 billion in buying and selling quantity of their first two weeks, making them the corporate’s fastest-growing product launch so far. The rollout marks a shift from Kalshi’s unique concentrate on occasion contracts linked to politics, sports activities, and different real-world outcomes towards a broader slice of the derivatives market on its CFTC-regulated alternate.
Highlights from the iFX EXPO Worldwide 2026
Lastly, the iFX EXPO Worldwide 2026, held at Metropolis of Desires Mediterranean, entered its remaining day on Thursday. The occasion gathered brokers, fintech companies, liquidity and fee suppliers, expertise distributors, and different stakeholders from throughout the net buying and selling trade.
Apparently, the Seychelles Monetary Providers Authority was additionally exhibiting on the occasion, selling its offshore regulatory regime on to brokers and different trade contributors.


