Bartosz Bielec, a long-time former director and Board Member of Admirals (previously Admiral Markets) and Chief Commercial Officer (CMO) of Alpari, joins the growing ranks of industry veterans who have decided to launch a new retail FX/CFD trading business.

As Finance Magnates exclusively learned, his newly co-founded project, Prime Quotes, has just acquired licenses in three jurisdictions, including the Republic of South Africa (RSA). In addition to the traditional CFD offering, the brand is also working on launching its own digital asset exchange.

Prime Quotes Enters the Market, Acquires 3 Licenses

Prime Quotes obtained its first license in the offshore jurisdiction of Saint Lucia, which is becoming increasingly popular among FX/CFD brokers. A month ago, the portfolio was supplemented with an authorization in one of Africa's largest economies issued by the FSCA. The latest, third license, obtained in May 2024, results from regulatory efforts by PrimeQuotes Markets Ltd., registered in Mauritius.

The most important seems to be the one from South Africa, which allows Prime Quotes to develop its offering on the continent, which remains unsaturated in terms of FX/CFD offerings.

"Africa is a very interesting and demanding market. Since our team has significant experience there, we decided to operate in it from South Africa," explained Bielec. "This allows us to cover both English and French-speaking countries."

The license obtained in Mauritius is intended to allow for expansion towards Asian markets, where Bielec and his team were previously responsible for developing Alpari and Admirals branches.

"We hold a license in Mauritius, which we intend to leverage for the Asian markets," he stated. "In the near future, we plan to acquire additional licenses - one in Europe and one in Asia. We are strongly considering an Australian license as well."

However, before that happens, Prime Quotes wants to complete the cryptocurrency exchange project it is currently working on. According to Bielec, it will become an integral part of the overall offering.

From Working for a Broker to Being a Broker

Bielec began his adventure with the FX/CFD market almost 20 years ago as the Director of Admirals for the CEE and CIS region. He then served as a Board Member of the popular broker until 2015. During this time, he was responsible for developing local offices in the region's countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Turkey.

After parting ways with Admirals after a decade, he was associated with Alpari for nearly three years, first as a CMO and Board Member and then also as Head of International Partnership. Since 2020, he has been associated with the EXCO Trader brand, a less popular FX/CFD broker offering trading to retail investors.

Finally, he decided to use the experience gained over nearly two decades to create his own brokerage brand.

"With over two decades of experience in financial markets, we understand that every aspect of the financial market is crucial," Bielec commented exclusively for Finance Magnates.

"We don't want to focus solely on one element; therefore, we aim to provide the best experience for both partners, through the flexibility of our offering, and investors, by providing them with the best trading conditions and access to both CFD and cryptocurrency products."

The team also includes another Pole, Tomasz Wiśniewski, who held the role of Country Head of Sales at the Warsaw branch of Admirals and then was the Education Department Manager at TMS, currently part of the OANDA Group. His paths with Bielec also crossed at Alpari, where he was Chief Analyst for nearly four years.

When asked why the official PrimeQuotes website claims the brand was officially launched in 2015, Bielec admits that it was a small fintech startup with completely different goals. Currently, the Prime Quotes has been revived and the creator speaks of it as a totally new brand, with an idea of combining an FX/CFD broker with a cryptocurrency exchange.