The Results were Astounding

New customers came to the website in droves and the bank’s new trading business was generating revenue almost immediately. There were other benefits as well.

The website attracted attention from overseas and as a result, this bank – which previously did no international business at all – was attracting new deposits due to the international exposure of its trading operations. The business continued to prosper and ActForex continued to support the bank’s success.

At one point, the bank was audited by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which included a system audit. In order to comply with the regulatory demand ActForex actually moved its hosting facility to SAS-70 data center to provide the required level of redundancy and security.

This case study has an unusual ending. A large European financial services company made an offer to the bank for its successful online operation. Even though it was highly profitable, the bank decided that retail Forex trading did not completely fit in with its business model and was competing with its other operations, so the bank agreed to sell it.

The European financial services company retained the senior manager and is continuing to successfully operate the company under a new name. When the company was founded, there were only five employees; today there are 40 employees, serving over 10,000 accounts and transacting approximately $10 billion in Forex trades each month.

(Source: http://www.fsteurope.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=27078&issue=169)

A. What do the following words and expressions mean?

§ the retail FX market

§ plug-and-play

§ aggregator

§ margin requirements

§ a turnkey

§ a front (back, middle) office

B. Find synonyms to the following words:

1) considerable

2) great (numbers)

3) thorough, comprehensive (reporting)

4) user-friendly (interface)

5) a beginner (in trading)

6) striking, startling

7) in large numbers (about people).