Artificial intelligence, changing regulation and shiftingbusiness models shaped this week's financial industry news. Brokers expandedtheir technology offerings, while regulators continued to examine the riskssurrounding complex products and emerging forms of automated trading.Elsewhere, ownership changed hands at London Capital Group,a major payments deal emerged in Cyprus, and iFOREX cut its earnings outlookafter a sharp fall in July trading income. Crypto developments also remainedprominent, with Capital.com separating its UAE spot crypto business and OKXreporting increased activity following Binance's European retreat.Who Takes Responsibility When an AI Trading Agent GoesWrong?The rapid arrival of AI agents in trading is raising aquestion that regulators have yet to answer clearly: whois liable when an autonomous system makes a costly mistake?Brokers havebegun connecting AI tools to client accounts, but rules governing agentictrading remain limited. Robinhood told Finance Magnates that customers areresponsible for how their agents are built and the actions they take. However,lawyers, brokers and regulatory experts expect firms to face greaterobligations as the technology develops.In the first few weeks of agentic trading on Robinhood, over 50,000 customers have opened agentic trading accounts and are trading millions of dollars per day of equities and options.Writing and executing sophisticated strategies or optimizing your everyday spending no longer…— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) June 18, 2026Possible safeguards include killswitches and circuit breakers, while future requirements could resemble"Know Your Agent" rules. The issue is becoming more urgent as AIagents gain greater access to trading platforms.Scope Markets Adds Copy and Inverse Trading on MT5Scope Markets launched Scope Copy, anew copy trading service for MetaTrader 5 that also allows clients to takethe opposite side of selected strategies. The service, powered by PLUGIT'sYOONIT technology, went live after a beta period involving more than 500,000replicated trades and launches with over 130 strategy providers. Clients canadjust risk and trade sizes, while providers can charge performance fees ofbetween 10% and 50%. The fee model uses a high-water mark, meaning providersmust recover previous losses before earning performance fees again. Theinverse-copying feature allows a provider's buy order, for example, to become asell order in the client's account.Basi and Worsfold Take Ownership of London Capital GroupLondon Capital Group changed ownership after itstwo senior executives, Matthew Basi and David Worsfold, acquired the stakespreviously linked to Charles Sabet. Basi, LCG's managing director, andWorsfold, its chief executive, now ultimately own the FCA-regulated businessthrough MBDW Holdings. The stakes were acquired from Walder Wyss, acting onbehalf of creditors following the 2024 bankruptcy of FlowBank, the Swiss bankfounded by Sabet. Companies House filings confirmed the ownership change,although the transaction value was not disclosed. The deal places LCG directlyunder the control of its current leadership. The company has operated as anexclusive introducing broker for IG since changing its business model.payabl. Reportedly Agrees €100 Million Deal for Half ofthe CompanyCyprus-based payments company payabl. reportedlyagreed to sell a 50% stake to private equity firm ECM Partners in atransaction exceeding €100 million. Group CEO Ugnė Buračienė will retain theremaining half of the company and continue in her current role. The transactionwould rank among the largest fintech deals in Cyprus by value. payabl. providespayment processing and gateway services, including foreign exchange and digitalasset on- and off-ramps, and serves clients in the retail brokerage sector. Thereported deal also highlights growing institutional interest in Cyprus'sfintech industry, where several businesses have expanded beyond their originalfounder-led structures as the sector has matured.iFOREX Cuts EBITDA Outlook After July Income Falls 77%iFOREX cut its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDAoutlook to between $0.5 million and $2.5 million after July trading incomefell sharply. The CFD broker reported about $720,000 in trading income for themonth, down 77% from approximately $3.1 million a year earlier. It attributedthe decline partly to the sharp appreciation of the yen following coordinatedUS-Japan currency intervention, which moved against its net client exposure.Low market volatility also affected trading income in August. New customersstill increased 40% year-on-year in July and deposits rose 8%, but these gainsdid not offset the income decline. Net cash had fallen to about $10 million byAugust 17.KNF Keeps CFD Review Open as XTB Shares DeclinePoland's Financial Supervision Authority said itsreview of how CFDs are offered remains ongoing, without providing atimetable or details of potential restrictions. The review is significant forXTB, where CFDs account for more than 95% of revenue, although the broker isseeking to diversify through products including equities and spot crypto. Theregulatory uncertainty coincided with a sharp decline in XTB's shares. Thestock fell 4.1% on Monday and another 2.7% by late Tuesday morning, leaving itnearly 7% below the previous Friday's close. There is no direct evidencelinking the sell-off to the regulator's comments, and the shares had risenstrongly before the decline.Oil Volatility Drives Growing Retail Trading DemandOil market volatility is drawing increased interest fromretail traders as geopolitical developments and supply concerns push priceshigher. Tradingactivity has increased across a range of products, from CFDs andexchange-traded funds to options and futures. Micro WTI futures trading was up317% year-on-year, while the United States Brent Oil Fund, BNO, attracted $419million in inflows during 2026. Oil prices have been supported by uncertaintysurrounding the US-Iran conflict, disruption to shipping routes and Ukrainianattacks on Russian refineries.Retail participation in Micro WTI Crude Oil (MCL) futures has driven YTD average daily volume to 271K contracts, with average daily open interest over 38K contracts. A significant portion of MCL volume continues to originate outside the U.S., as geopolitical uncertainty is… pic.twitter.com/7xV239ChcU— CME Group Active Trader (@CMEActiveTrader) July 23, 2026At the same time, OPEC and the InternationalEnergy Agency have reduced their forecasts for global oil demand. The competingforces underline the risks of trading a market increasingly driven bygeopolitical headlines.Capital.com Separates UAE Crypto Business Under NewLicenceCapital.com will offer spotcrypto services to UAE clients through a separately regulated affiliate,Capital Vault UAE, while keeping its existing CFD operations within thebroker's current regulatory structure. Capital Vault secured a full federalvirtual-asset licence from the Capital Market Authority, allowing it to deal invirtual assets as an agent or matching principal and provide custody services.Once launched, clients will be able to buy virtual assets through theCapital.com app, with execution, settlement and custody handled by the licensedaffiliate. The broker has not announced a launch date. The arrangement createsseparate regulatory and operational structures for crypto and CFDs, even thoughclients will access both services through the same application.OKX Reports Surge in Activity Following Binance's MiCARetreatOKX Europe reported a sharp increase in app downloads andcustomer inflows after Binancewithdrew its MiCA licence application in Greece and stopped onboarding newEU clients. According to Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, downloads of theexchange's EU app rose almost 160% in the following 12 days, while inflows fromBinance-linked accounts increased more than eightfold. The scale of the migrationcould not be independently confirmed from broader on-chain balance data. Ghoosalso highlighted the continuing gap between licensed and offshore cryptotrading, estimating that 95% of European crypto derivatives volume remainsoutside regulated EU venues. Ghoos said pulling trading volume back onshorewould require regulators to enforce against offshore venues while licensedplatforms expand their product range to compete with them.This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.