FX broker INFINOX brings personal touch into the Irish market

The financial markets are always a tricky place to navigate but a new entry into the Irish market aims to help investors make better decisions.

Financial markets are always volatile, especially when you take the global landscape into account, and it’s no surprise that data is being used to overcome this problem.

It’s something that’s key to the offerings of FX broker Infinox. You only have to look at services like its globalisation index – which tracks the sentiment of economic, social and political news to give traders a snapshot of the landscape and spot any positive or negative changes to financial markets – to see its approach is a little different to other competitors.

The company is now launching in Ireland through its partners Evergreen Wealth Management, and its CEO Robert Berkeley says that the company already has strong ties with the country, making the move a no-brainer

“Infinox has had strong links with Ireland for some time now,” he says. “We have a number of partnerships that have proven successful and have increased our appetite to focus on the region.

“We have had great success in Europe and Asia since our inception and we believe the lessons we’ve learned and the experience we bring will fit well with the trading community of Ireland. For the next few months we will increase our footprint in Ireland with a number of events and trading seminars, with the aim of opening a branch later in the year.”

What separates it from other financial firms is its transparency when it comes to both pricing and execution. Berkeley mentions that the company has greatly increased its real-time data visibility, and its speed of operations, which includes prompt processing of deposits and withdrawals, placing it at the top of the market.

High-speed service

Central to its offerings is FX (Forex). Since the financial market is a fast-paced environment, and FX is the most-frequently traded market in the world, Infinox has to make sure that its services are not just up to scratch but offer the best possible service for its clients.

Key to that is its trading platform MT4, which offers custom analytics, access anywhere through desktop, web or smartphone, and a built-in market which offers the widest selection of trading apps in the world, including 1,700 trading robots and 2,100 technical indicators.

Making MT4 flexible and accessible is important since the FX market is, as Berkeley points out, a 24-hour market place.

“We’ve built Infinox by offering firstclass service and technology so that our traders have high-speed access to empower their trading,” he says. “We offer the world-renowned MT4 trading platform… so that our traders can access the markets at all times. Fast accessibility is a key feature of our services and both our trading platforms and deposit and withdrawal system allow for instant access.

“We continue to invest in our global trading infrastructure, delivering blistering execution-only trading performance, and a rich set of analytics and services for Expert Advisors, which all directly benefits clients’ accessibility.”

While the technology is important, the core of Infinox’s service is the client service it offers. The approach is that every client is more than just a stat, they’re someone to build a relationship with, key to that is its partnership with Evergreen Wealth Management.

“Our business is founded on the principle that the client ‘is more than just an account number.' and Evergreen give us that personal touch we need,” he says. “Evergreen also plays a central role in assisting in marketing in Ireland. It is through Evergreen that we have received a warm welcome in Ireland from many institutions and stakeholders in the Irish financial sector.

“We build long-term, personal, commercially focused relationships with all clients and that, along with our passion for the industry, separates us from the crowd.”

That relationship is key since a major requirement when signing up is having experience in trading.

Risk is always a major factor when trading and to ensure they’re going to get the most out of it, clients must pass an assessment to ensure they know the risks associated.

“Before we allow clients to trade they must pass an appropriateness assessment and demonstrate they have the knowledge and experience of the product to enable them to understand the features and risks,” explains Berkeley.

“Our platform allows clients to enter pre-determined stop losses and take profit levels, which are fundamental to any risk management strategy.

On top of that, Infinox also partners with Knightsbridge Trading Academy which offers an accredited CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment) training course, run in conjunction with the London Stock Exchange.

The reason for this is to help new and experienced traders improve their knowledge of financial markets for either personal trading or a career in the industry. Much like MT4, clients can access these courses online or avail of one-on-one training across the globe.

Meeting regulations

Speaking of which, one of the bigger challenges the industry faces is around regulatory requirements.

Since it’s based in London, it’s authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), recently the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which is the framework of European Union legislation for investment intermediaries and the organised training of financial instruments, has increased the requirements around broker reporting and monitoring of service providers.

Berkeley mentions that while this hasn’t necessarily affected its client base, it does require an investment in its services, updating its infrastructure, processes and procedures to meet the requirements MiFID places on financial institutions.

Then there are other elements, this year for example the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is publishing considerations on a number of proposals aimed at retail clients. The aim of which is to increase conduct standards throughout the industry.

Additionaly, ESMA recently confirmed its production intervention measures for the Contract for Differences (CFD) sector and, in short, there’s much for financial institutions to consider. Meeting these requirements is something that Infinox is actively working on as the market and regulations change.“Prior to ESMA’s confirmation of its measures, we started to put in place policies and procedure to ensure wewould adapt to any change and meet our

regulatory requirements,” says Berkeley.

“We’re always improving our products to ensure the ultimate trading experience, and this includes adapting to regulatory changes. We’re fully supportive of ESMA’s measures, which we believe will act in the interest of consumers and ensure the sector continues to meet the high standards expected of it.”

After it launches in Ireland, Infinox will continue to meet its regulatory requirements as well as any potential changes globally, while maintaining its core values.

“The year ahead has many hurdles to cross from a regulatory stand point,” says Berkeley. “We have set ourselves up globally to adapt to any potential changes and will continue to grow our global footprint. We look to move into new jurisdictions, offering region-specific products and technology.

“Infinox has achieved great recent success by sticking to our core values by empowering our traders and partners to achieve their investment goals, offering state-of-the-art technology and first-class customer server. Our focus is to continue to meet these core values and service clients globally in the years ahead.”