Several brokers and financial service providers utilize a variety of strategies in a bid to secure growth – PriorFX is one such entity that has championed a strict STP-centric modeling approach, attributing it to its success and growth in the industry as of late. Finance Magnates spoke with Viktor Virszta, Managing Director of PriorFX Ltd, for his perspective on the group’s business, client base, and growth trajectory.
PriorFX has targeted sustained and rapid growth as one of its paramount strategies. According to Mr. Virszta, “PriorFX is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry. It started its operations in 2014 and managed to do its first billion turnover within four months tripling this volume by the year-end. We continue to show such continuously growing dynamics in 2015. The list of clients is also expanding as well as their geographical distribution. The number of clients is currently well exceeding three thousand.”
With several foreign exchange (FX) markets approaching or already at the point of saturation, many brokers must assert themselves in an increasingly competitive industry. To this point, PriorFX has attributed its growth and rapid success to its STP model.
“The first factor of success in our opinions is the unique team of professionals consisting of a perfect blend of highly motivated young Forex experts who have already proved their worthiness working previously for other prominent forex companies in London, experienced, well-seasoned specialists in financial sphere and talented IT gurus,” he noted.
“The other factor is our devotion to a strict STP model that is making the business interests of our clients and these of our company go together. We really like it when our clients win because the more they win the more they trade the more commission feed the Company is getting.”
However, “Concerning practical issues our key advantages, we push for a swift execution of clients’ orders using very reliable MT4 platform, particularly favored by the majority of retail customers, in combination with low spreads which we are offering to our clients. We feel one of the best solutions for multiple signal distribution, which is working much faster than the majority of the similar products on the market, as well as very fair, and clear to use system of commission Payments to Introducing Brokers. Lastly, our aggregation of several price feeds gives our clients a fair chance to choose the best suitable option to make a transaction. Those who already work with us seem to be quite satisfied with our cooperation,” he continued.
Shifting gears slightly, Mr. Virszta touched on the preservation of client funds as a factor into client interest in PriorFX. “Certainty the preservation of clients’ funds is considered as one of our priorities not only from the point of view of satisfying regulatory legal requirements but also as a tool to enhance our competitiveness. We understand that this issue is of a paramount importance to all serious clients who plan to have long-term cooperation with us and who represent our preferable target group. For this reason we are maintaining segregated accounts with several financial institutions including Swiss Bank.”
In addition, PriorFX is providing brokerage and portfolio management services – its portfolio management dimension has not reached the full maturation of its development as of yet, however, “It has gradually gained traction and importance both in our income structure and company’s resources allocated to it. The existence of the highly advanced PAMM technology which is decreasing unavoidable delay in signal transmission to the absolute minimum together with analytical resources constitutes a solid foundation for promotion of portfolio management in such a form.”
Successful companies in our view can neither rely solely on externally acquired nor homemade IT solutions
According to Mr. Virszta, “We are currently establishing relationship with portfolio management companies in Europe (in Germany in particular) who plan to use us as custodian of their clients’ funds, utilize our infrastructure and execution facilities. This business dimension will also increase if everything goes as planned.”
Finally, Mr. Virszta touched on the role of technology as a determinant of revenues at PriorFX. “In our opinion, technology in forex companies is of paramount importance, and to a much bigger extent than other segments of investment industry. Successful companies in our view can neither rely solely on externally acquired nor homemade IT solutions.”
Moreover, “One should find a proper combination of suitable sophisticated products available on the market with technological solutions developed in-house and customized to the needs of a particular company and its clients. That’s why we feel the IT Department of PriorFX is one of the most numerous in the industry and is constantly working on further improvements of the existing systems and development of the new ones.”
This trend is reflective in the efforts of PriorFX’s client base, which has targeted specific locales or regions recently. According to Mr. Virszta, “PriorFX has placed considerable efforts to establish itself as a reliable partner in the South East Asia. We have also good contacts with clients from Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and other European countries. Evidently their behavior patterns differ a lot.”
In general, “The former group is much more aggressive in their trading and has more appetite to risks, the latter group is much more conservative although all people are different and previous conclusion should be taken as the result of a very broad generalization,” he noted.
