Goldenway Japan, the Tokyo company that runs retail FX and CFD broker FXTF, said today (Monday) it will change its name to GW Securities. The FXTF brand, client contracts, website and office address stay as they are, according to a notice to clients.
The new name takes effect on November 1, and its registration is due to be completed by December 1. Goldenway Japan gave no reason for the change.
The switch covers the more than 280,000 accounts FXTF reported in June, when it became the first Japanese broker to connect its accounts to TradingView.
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Goldenway Japan is wholly owned by FXTF Holdings, a Singapore company, according to its corporate profile. Its president previously worked at Hong Kong-based Goldenway Investment, whose name the Japanese firm has carried.
Notice Arrived on the Day of a Breach Update
The rename was announced on the same day FXTF said hackers had placed trades on several client MT4 accounts. The intruders used logins taken from servers that traders rented from GMO Internet Group.
FXTF restricted trading on the accounts involved and will require one-time passwords at login from October 31, a two-step login that IG Japan made compulsory in June amid a phishing wave. The rename notice does not refer to the incident.
Japanese Brokers Have Renamed Their Companies Before
Goldenway Japan already holds a Type I financial instruments business license, the category Japanese securities houses operate under, and is a member of the Japan Securities Dealers Association (JSDA).
Several Japan-licensed FX brokers have changed the name of the licensed company before, and the brand did not always change with it.
OANDA’s Japanese unit, which held withdrawals last week after the same server-host breach, changed its company name from OANDA Japan to OANDA Securities on August 1, 2021. Its notice covered the company name only.
FOREX.com’s Japanese arm changed twice. Gain Capital Japan renamed itself StoneX Financial in 2021, and it became StoneX Securities in September 2022 while keeping the FOREX.com brand, FX News Group reported at the time.
YJFX went further. It was renamed Gaika ex by GMO in September 2021 after GMO Financial Holdings bought it, and its FX service took the Gaika ex name. Of the three, it is the only one whose brand changed along with the company name.
For FXTF clients the change is mostly on paper. Account-opening documents will show both names from October 30, and deposits should still go to bank accounts held in the Goldenway name for about a month while the banks update the account holder.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
