You deal with HMA which acts as counterparty to every transaction you enter into on our platforms. You will have an exposure to us in relation to each transaction if we are not ready, willing or able to meet our obligations, for example, if HMA were to become insolvent. You are reliant on our ability to meet our counterparty’s obligations to you to settle the relevant contract(s).

We limit this exposure by hedging our exposure to our clients by entering into transactions as principal in the wholesale market in relation to our exposures. We are then exposed to the counterparty risk with that hedging party.

Our policy to manage our exposure to market risk from client positions is to offset (hedge) a substantial number of client trades with external liquidity providers on a back-to-back basis. Thus, there is limited risk to us. Providers are chosen based on their ability to provide liquidity in the underlying market as well as the strength of their balance sheet.

Determining whether Hedging Counterparties are of sufficient financial standing:

If at any time we engage additional hedging counterparties, we will ensure that hedging counterparties are appropriately licensed and regulated by an independent body in the relevant jurisdiction and meet the following criteria:

1. have strong financial and compliance (including risk management) resources;
2. have sufficient resources to service our needs and the volume of trades we anticipate placing with them; and
3. have a proven track record in relation to Over-The-Counter (“OTC”) products.

The details of our current counterparties can be found here: