It seems like only yesterday that a handful of big banks woke up to the potential of retail FX and came wading into the sector. Most of their marketing was based around the sanctity of their name: Why deal with an under-capitalised bucket shop, they might have claimed, when you can deal with a solid, reputable counterparty like us?
Oh, how swiftly things can change! This week Citi announced it will offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance on US dollar deposits placed as margin for trading on CitiFX Pro, its online FX platform aimed at the retail sector. “As an additional benefit of dealing with a global market leader in foreign exchange, CitiFX Pro clients will now benefit from insurance on their US dollar margin deposit regardless of account size,” the bank says, which must be very comforting I’m sure.