USGFX’s UK arm reports stable financials despite Aussie woes
Union Standard Group International Limited (USG UK), the FCA-regulated business of the embattled forex broker USGFX, has reported its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.
Despite its regulatory woes in Australia and elsewhere, USGFX disclosed solid financial metrics for its UK operations.
Over the previous fiscal year, the broker saw its operating revenues increase to £1.27 million in FY 2021, up from £63,064 a year ago. However, it’s important to note that although the firm was incorporated in 2018, it did not launch its services until January 2020.
In terms of its bottom line, the firm reported its net profit at a figure of £93,830 for 2021, better than the loss of £347,572 it incurred the previous year. USG UK also said that the total balance of its segregated client bank accounts jumped to £979,369 compared to only £38,001 a year ago.
Per its regulatory filing, the company is under the control of State of Samoa-based Union Standard Group International Holdings Limited, while the ultimate controlling party is Soe Hein Minn.
In 2020, the board of USGFX announced that the headquarters of the brokerage were moved from Australia to London. Until recently, the UK and Australian entities that shared the same directors with the UK subsidiary are majority-owned by Myanmar-based, Hein Min Soe, who was also a director of the Australian business. However, Hien Min Soe reportedly stepped down as a director of the brokerage’s United Kingdom-based business.
USGFX’s Aussie brand remains in trouble
BRI Ferrier, the liquidators of Union Standard International Group, known as USG or USGFX, revealed earlier this year that the creditor claims have hit $357 million, and this amount may increase further.
The special administrators of USGFX’s ASIC-regulated brand also disclosed that the company was in terrible financial difficulty and that it had a heavy shortfall in client money of more than $348 million.
Earlier in 2021, the Vanuatu-based entity of USGFX said that BRI Ferrier had sought to seize its assets outside of Australia. The now-bankrupt forex broker accused liquidators of abusing their power after they instructed First Bank in Puerto Rico to freeze accounts of USG Global.
Despite being owned by the same person, the company reiterated that its Vanuatu brand is a separate legal entity that has been operating independently of the brokerage business currently under liquidation in Australia.
Additionally, USG Group claims that although it has no control over the liquidation process, it has been processing withdrawal requests for USGFX clients who transferred their accounts to its offshore company.
The brokerage added that it is still determined to retain its brand and global operations, regardless of its current situation and “rather than wasting money and resources on war of words.”
