Former type Private Products Foreign exchange Parent organization Deutsche Bank Date founded May 2006 | Industry Financial services Website www.dbfx.com Headquarters London Defunct 17 May 2011 | |
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dbFX was Deutsche Bank’s online margin forex trading platform for individuals that operated between May 2006 and May 2011. The client list was sold to Gain Capital and existing clients were directed to Gain's retail service forex.com upon closure of the business.
Contents
Launch
dbFX was launched in May 2006 in response to the growing global forex market and increasing client demand for streamlined access to capital market products. Initially offered to clients across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, dbFX later became the first international investment bank to provide online retail FX services to the Middle East in October 2007.
Closure
On April 21, 2011, Deutsche Bank said it would exit the retail forex trading business and announced the dbFX client database would be sold to Gain Capital and the clients will be transferred to Gain's retail brand forex.com. dbFX announced the closure on its website saying "...We'd like to inform you that from Friday 13 May 2011, Deutsche Bank will no longer provide dbFX, its online FX trading platform for individuals and small institutions. dbFX has made arrangements that will allow existing clients to open an account with FOREX.com...".
This was completed and the business was shut down on May 17, 2011. Although Deutsche Bank did not go into much detail to explain why it was shutting down the business, it is likely that they failed to attract the numbers of retail clients they had expected. This was at a time when forex trading regulations in the US and elsewhere were getting stricter, which may have been seen as a risk for its wholesale forex business. At the time of closure, Deutsche Bank was the largest wholesale forex trader by market share in the world but the retail service was provided by a third party under a white-label agreement and so did not use the prices and infrastructure of its wholesale forex business, which likely contributed to its failure.
Services
dbFX offered online FX trading services to self-directed traders, money managers, hedge funds and financial institutions via its trading platform software.
An Introducing Broker Program was also offered to those looking to introduce self-directed and managed accounts to dbFX.
Trading platform
The dbFX trading platform was provided under a white-label agreement from FXCM and was available in seven languages: English, Chinese, Arabic, German, Spanish, French and Russian. Features included integrated charts, hedging with no FIFO restrictions, different order types, real-time account summary and 24-hour reporting.