FX Solutions effectively took over the operations of IFX Markets USA, the Boston arm of the UK entity City Index.
IFX Markets has traveled a turbulent path these past eight years. Originally founded in 2001 as Commerce Bank Foreign Exchange or CBFX, a subsidiary of Commerce Bank & Trust, it was subsequently sold to UK broker IFX Group in 2004 for a meager $1.9 million. In 2006, IFX Group was acquired by City Index (for £57.9 million.) Prior IFX Group shareholders included Tradition Group, which is also the parent company of U.S. Forex Dealer FXDD. Tradition acquired 10% interest in IFX Group in February 2004 for 7,529,000 Swiss Frank.
In April 2007, private equity firm Francisco Partners bought a controlling interest in FX Solutions for over $150 million . In under a year Francisco Partners sold its interest in FX Solutions to City Index, who had lost out to Francisco Partners in the initial process to acquire FX Solutions. Since the completion of the deal in February 2008 many have thought that IFX Markets’ days were numbered. City Index had chosen FX Solutions as its flagship retail FX brand and the larger New Jersey based operation was slated to take over the smaller Boston based IFX Markets.
City Index is a subsidiary of Intercapital Private Group Limited (IPGL Limited) the holding firm of British magnate Michael Spencer and is also the parent company of ICAP, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker. ICAP in turn acquired bank operated trading platform EBS in April 2006 for an estimated $800 million. Making this one big happy Forex family.
IFX clients will be transitioned from IFX’s ICTS platform, provided by software vendor ACT Forex, onto FX Solutions’ proprietary GTS Pro. The redundancy of the two firms’ operations leaves the fate of IFX’s Boston based employees uncertain. Rumor has it that some high level departures, both voluntary and forced, have already occurred.