London’s position as the world’s main currency trading centre would be threatened by a British exit from the European Union, with Frankfurt, Paris, New York and Dublin likely to be the main beneficiaries, according to a survey of foreign exchange (FX) market professionals.

The research team at Chatsworth Communications polled 12,000 members of the ACI Financial Markets Association, the largest global trade body representing the international currency markets, for their personal views ahead of the UK Referendum vote on 23 June.

Key findings:

Going into the UK referendum we have considered it important to take prudent measures to reduce our clients’ exposure to risk and to be fully transparent. It has been essential for Saxo Bank to explain to our clients that neither clients nor Saxo Bank benefit from overleveraging and that we, with our clients' interest firmly at heart, are doing our utmost to educate on the range of options available.

This result is a big blow to the UK’s micro-business sector and I think that a lot of people will be very concerned about what the future will hold.

It was clear during the run up to the referendum that the overwhelming majority of micro-business owners and freelancers were in favour of the UK remaining in the EU, and that they did not think a ‘Brexit’ would be beneficial for their own businesses or the economy in general.

The UK, led by London, has rapidly become a global centre for Financial Technology innovation. With an estimated 500 FinTech companies in the UK, Brexit will cost the taxman around five billion pounds* over the course of the next ten years, following the inevitable exit of the FinTech companies themselves. As well as London being a global financial hub, the UK offers specific regulatory benefits, that when combined with a massive pool of talent have made the UK the natural choice to be located both from a European perspective and for some companies, even as a global base.

Profile Software, a leading financial solutions provider, announced today that T.C.R. International Ltd, a fast-growing Cypriot wealth and fund manager, selected IMSplus, its award-winning investment management platform, to effectively manage their full processes of their wealth management activities.

 Fiserv, Inc, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, has launched a platform for the delivery of real-time alerts, enabling financial institutions to meet growing expectations among consumers and small businesses for information that is timely and actionable.

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc., a global provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, announced the appointment of Will Entwistle, Senior Vice President, SS&C Institutional and Investment Management. Mr. Entwistle brings extensive experience building world class sales and relationship management organizations at Interactive Data Corporation and IBM Corporation.

Accenture and Automation Anywhere, a global provider of robotic process automation (RPA), are working together to deliver enterprise-grade RPA solutions to organizations that automate business processes, enabling operations to be scaled faster and more cost-effectively, while increasing performance accuracy.

Bank guarantees are a vital feature of many sectors of business, but are costly to manage and all too easily mislaid or found to be riddled with inaccuracies that render them invalid.

Why is that? To a large extent it is because paper still predominates, making it difficult for businesses to stay on top of the guarantees relating to all their projects.

In commercial property, guarantees are often a basic requirement in leases, where they give landlords security against potential loss from tenant defaults.