Last month Forex Magnates wrote about Vyacheslav Taran being appointed the new CEO of Forex Club. Having founded the brokerage, Taran has been more involved with the firm as a Director until recently becoming CEO. In addition to Forex Club, Taran is known for being an active member of the Russian forex industry and is on the Founder’s Board of CRFIN. To learn more about the new position and the future of Forex Club, Forex Magnates spoke to Vyacheslav Taran.
Vyacheslav Taran, Co-Founder & CEO, Forex Club
What led to Vladimir Kozlov stepping down from the CEO spot? And is there too much change taking place at the broker with you becoming the third CEO in two year?
While being the CEO, Vladimir Kozlov made a significant input into the further growth of FOREX CLUB. Restructuring of the company’s internal business processes, as well as development of FOREX CLUB`s key markets were among his top priorities. And he succeeded in achieving his goals.
In 2012 Forex Club showed good results in revenue and active clients. Forex market is the most dynamic, competitive market and its transformative nature and wide opportunities it opens can be hardly compared to any other financial sector – therefore, for us, a broker, there is a greater challenge to deliver quick, efficient business solutions and instant adjustments which correspond to market dynamics. I suppose, these are challenges universal for any leader or would-be leader in online brokerage. Therefore, my appointment is aimed at providing the company with the highest speed of transformation and new processes’ implementation.
Due to impartial reasons, the role of a traditionally hired CEO often doesn`t not allow one to act in such a fast way as one can, if he is at the same time the owner of the company.
In March it was reported that you became the Chairman of the Board. At that time was it expected that it would lead to you becoming the CEO?
Keeping in mind the necessity of the company`s transformation, we were considering my step in action as an option when appropriate.
What is the current state of affairs at Forex Club, where are your main markets?
We’ve established a very strong and loyal client base in our core markets (Russia and the CIS) – that’s a significant achievement for any brand in any industry, and one we’re all proud of at FOREX CLUB. I am convinced our success is first and foremost based on our long-term client relationship. We regularly engage our clients and potential clients in communication both, in online and offline formats. This includes activities such as our own trading community forums as well as our Client Services, Academy training, and we act upon their feedback, working hard to excel in our service delivery.
I would also like to speak in more detail about our competitive product portfolio, namely about StartFX. At present, StartFx is the best solution for novice traders, as well as for experienced ones in Russia and the CIS market, as it provides them with gold and silver instruments which are highly appreciated. As for Investment accounts, this niche has been growing so far and we may notice increasing demand for investment products. Therefore, we are striving to provide our traders with best-in-class investment-in-Forex Trading solutions.
Why did Forex Club decide to fully exit the US without at least maintaining an IB license?
As a group of brokerage companies, we have been rather pleased with our retail growth and prospects in all other markets. Forex Club’s strategic market approach is to be in top-three forex brokers on markets of its presence. As for the US market, bearing in mind the regulatory environment and our estimations, we came to the conclusion that the potential and the capacity of this market would not let us grow intensively and reach our targets within a short period. Consequently, we decided to focus on other markets.
What changes do you plan to make at the broker?
Our experience and market estimations allow saying that there is still a big demand for a wide range of low-cost investment and online-trading products. Due to this issue, two years ago we made a decision to build up Charles Schwab business model.
I`m sure that this will help us advance in online-trading and investment business on our core markets. We are going to complete this transformation within a 3-year period.
In the past, Forex Club was one of the larger brokers offering the Act Forex platform. You no longer list it in your ‘Trading Platforms’, why did you make a change to focus on MetaTrader?
Online-trading market is constantly developing, thus forming the demand for specific trading platforms. At present clients on our core markets prefer to use MT4 platform as their main trading tool.
Therefore, we listened to our clients and optimized our product portfolio according to the current demand. Moreover, we see that the existing product portfolio (including StartFx, investment account and Rumus ) is highly competitive on our core markets.
What are the plans for the future at Forex Club?
We will keep a strong focus on the Russian Federation and the CIS markets. We think that the true market potential for our core products and the recent and planned adjustments to the investment portfolio is far beyond the current market size.
We’ll also continue to seek opportunities for developing new markets where we consider we have good potential, such as Latin America and Asia. As for the company itself, we will continue transformation from a forex broker into a multiproduct online-trading and financial company.
