After years of operating Forex .com and the City Index brand which was acquired for $118 mln in 2014, GAIN Capital is about to restructure its portfolio. The company made public its intention in its Q4 2018 earnings report.
After years of focusing on the institutional segment of the market, the native GAIN Capital brand will turn to retail. The company has announced that it will slowly be phasing out City Index and segmenting its clients to FOREX.com and GAIN Capital.
Aiming to grow its market share in existing markets and increase its presence in other markets, the company is leveraging its brands to target two distinct customer segments, experienced active traders with GAIN Capital and the broader retail clients group with FOREX.com.
Regulatory Challenges
The rollout of the GAIN Capital brand will start from Australia with sophisticated clients in mind. The firm’s focus on delivering a product that is competitive on a global scale with a competitive pricing structure and a more personalized approach is to follow with a global rollout later during the year.
“The GAIN brand will be built on our existing customer proposition and global regulatory footprint with some exciting new products and service enhancements based on the extensive customer research we've done to help inform our strategy,” the company’s CEO Glenn Stevens elaborates.
City Index will be gradually phased out and fully replaced while the company continues investing in the development of FOREX.com. The higher brand awareness and the FX-centric name enables the firm to make use of its cost-efficient customer acquisition model, driven by an automated onboarding and funding experience.
“The reach and brand awareness of FOREX.com affords us global expansion opportunities, including new language offerings to support our entrance into new regional markets,” Stevens explained.
The ability of the company to operate from a single technology stack, enables it to execute the transition smoothly and offer the majority of our investments in trading platforms, tools, and other products and services across both brands.
Focusing Marketing Efforts
The change announced by GAIN Capital shouldn’t come as a surprise. Consolidating branding efforts and focusing on a coherent strategy will help the company in a tough competitive environment.
Starting from Australia is also a swift strategic decision, since the regulatory framework in the land down under is allowing more flexible Leverage to risk-hungry clients that already have experience.
Last but not least, GAIN Capital is the name of a publicly-listed company and resonates well with higher-value clients.
