FXCM to Focus on Wholesale Business

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 [e-mail]

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