JFD Brokers, a multi-asset broker, has announced a series of changes over the past few months. As Finance Magnates reported, the company recently launched commission-free stock trading conditions for its clients, joining a small group of brokers who offer commission-free trading.
At present this group consists of Trading 212, a London-headquartered brokerage who launched commission free trading in the Forex and CFD brokerage space in September 2018 and BUX, a trading application.
Furthermore, the company also revealed that it would be focusing more on its prime brokerage operations. To find out more on the recent changes and what's next, Finance Magnates spoke with Lars Gottwik, the Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Following your recent announcement about zero-commission stock trading, what are the typical spreads for EU and US shares?
As JFD is offering Cash Equities via a SOR (Smart Order Router), best execution and pricing is always available to our clients as all reference exchanges like NYSE, Deutsche Börse, Nasdaq, etc. are included.
Did you change the spreads ahead or after the announcement?
No, we trade via SOR on-exchange.
Do you view this move as a marketing tool to attract new clients and then upsell them to CFDs, or is it part of an effort to onboard more long-term investors?
JFD was from the beginning more than a classic FX Broker. We have been the first broker globally that packaged into an MT4 in total 9 asset classes, as well as a game changer by introducing Post Trade Transparency for all clients. Beyond this, we had since inception a strong Portfolio management division. Since almost 1,5 years we have on the brokerage side a Multi Asset Offering, including Cash Equities. Generally speaking, we see ourselves a full-service provider in finance, spanning execution services, investment solutions, and soon banking. Cash Equities have been and will be a key product and much more than simply an acquisition tool.
With the recent regulatory changes in the European market, has JFD Brokers been successful in retaining clients?
Yes, 2018 has been a record year for us in Europe. We see all regulatory changes very positive. As we never did misleading marketing in terms of Leverage (as many others did), our clients are not leverage sensitive. Our volumes did increase in 2018 as our market share did further grow in the EU.
How have the leverage restrictions affected your business model?
No, absolutely not. We believe that nobody really needs leverages beyond 1:40. That’s more than enough for any serious trader.
Can you please tell us more about your recent acquisition of Acon Bank?
JFD is a full-service provider with a 360-degree vision. We are building a financial control center for retail clients from where they can manage banking, trading and investing. That’s why we will shortly rebrand as JFD Bank.
What's next in the pipeline for JFD Brokers?
We will launch within JFD Invest Cash Equities trading strategies, increase significantly our Cash Equities offering, launch a native app in Q3 as well as prepare for offering banking services in 2020. Besides all this we will also become again more active as a Prime Broker, serving B2B clients with a full multi-asset product suite.
