Australia's Macquarie Bank has moved into the retail foreign exchange market with the acquisition of a controlling stake in Sydney-based provider OzForex. Macquarie has paid an undisclosed sum for 51 per cent of OzForex, which has offices in London and Sydney with a third set to open in Canada next month. OzForex targets the foreign currency needs of retail and small business customers, offering services in 17 currencies. The business, founded by Matt Gilmour, currently has 35,000 customers but under the terms of the Macquarie deal it will now become the preferred provider of forex services to the 670,000 retail customers within Macquarie's Financial Services Group. OzForex did A$2 billion in trades in 2006, up 60 per cent on 2005, and while that is not considered huge it was enough to put the group in the top three non-bank forex dealers in Australia. The company uses an internet platform to deal currencies 24 hours a day, and its outlook is increasingly global. David Gilmour, who will remain joint managing director, said Macquarie had approached him with the deal. While he had received other approaches in the past, he said he "liked the synergies" which Macquarie could deliver.