Our story

CMC Markets was established in 1989 as a foreign exchange market maker. Its founder, Peter Cruddas, has grown the business since then into a leading global provider of retail contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange. In addition, it is a major player in the UK financial spread betting market.

CMC Markets launched the world’s first online retail foreign exchange trading service in 1996, allowing customers to take advantage of markets previously only accessible to the professionals. Since then, the Company has broadened its offering to include spread betting, CFDs and in Australia, stockbroking services.

As a CFD market maker, CMC Markets’ success has partly been achieved through its dedication to innovation, making market access easier for the private investor. The early adoption of internet technology was central to its growth and the Company’s continued success can be attributed to its ability to keep pace with the way customers are using the internet.

The Company’s Marketmaker trading platform and its trade-on-the move cousin, Marketmaker: mobile, are prime examples of its dedication to the on-going development of its technology based culture.

CMC Markets took its investment brand international when, in 2002, it opened its first non-UK office in Sydney, Australia. In subsequent years, the Company has broadened its presence to cover Asia, continental Europe and North America.

Key acquisitions in the course of CMC Markets’ expansion have included the financial content and data provider Digital Look Limited and Australian stockbroker Andrew West & Co. Limited (now CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited). CMC Markets welcomed its first institutional shareholder when Goldman Sachs purchased a 10% holding in the Company in 2007.

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