Wellesley’s financial career began in 1985 as a derivatives trader at the London stockbroking firm
Hoare Govett, from where he moved to two further derivatives trading roles at
Banque Indosuez and
ING Charterhouse. In 2000, IFX was bought by the football pools operator
Zetters for £20.4million in a reverse takeover, forming a new entity – IFX Group – with Wellesley as group chief executive. Two years later the company sold its pools business. In 2003, Wellesley and Naldini left IFX following a disagreement with the board and co-founded ODL Securities, an online foreign exchange and derivatives broker. In 2005, ODL was the whistleblower in an attempted banking fraud by
US hedge fund Bayou. Bayou opened an account with ODL, depositing $101million and requesting two transactions that were refused by the management, who notified the UK
Financial Services Authority. In 2010, Wellesley and Naldini sold their 50% stake in ODL to US foreign exchange firm FXCM Holdings, creating a business employing around 1,000 staff. In December that year, the newly enlarged entity floated on the
New York Stock Exchange. In 2013, Graham Wellesley co-founded alternative lender
Wellesley & Co. with three other shareholders, taking the role of chief executive. The following year the company issued what at the time was the largest ever loan by a peer-to-peer lender – a £8.3million bridging loan to a UK urban regeneration scheme. In September 2020 the company engaged
Duff & Phelps to draw up a
company voluntary arrangement (CVA) to try to avoid what they described as a "disorderly wind-down and likely insolvency which would result in an inferior outcome for all investors". If the CVA is agreed by the creditors, unsecured bondholders may get 1p per £1 invested whilst secured investors may get up to 84p per £1; if not the firm will go into administration. The firm went into administration on 30th April 2025. Related to the collapse of Wellesley & Co, in April 2024 Graham Wellesley lost a High Court battle about a loan secured against Chalet Valentine, their six-bedroom, five-bathroom property on the Mont d’Arbois in France, close to the Swiss border. ==Personal life==