It’s a tumultuous time for the retail trading world. With European regulations crimping foreign exchange brokers trading volumes, technology providers have also been struggling to get their products out to market.
But despite all of this, one firm thinks its new brokerage solution service is going to be a hit with companies across the trading world. Brokermate demoed their new brokerage platform earlier this year and will be fully launching the product at the upcoming iFX Expo in Cyprus.
In the run-up to the event, we spoke to Brokermate’s chief marketing officer, Dave Schramm, to get an idea of what his company has planned and learn more about the company’s new brokerage solution.
Can you explain what it is you are trying to do with Brokermate? What products are you looking to build and who are you trying to provide them to?
Brokemate began as an idea five years ago: to create a single, comprehensive platform that has all the features and functionality a broker and their clients need in one place.
Our white-label solution includes everything from client registration to trading platforms, employee and lead back-office management, real-time performance reporting and Analytics , and even the ability to customize pricing via spread and commission. Until now, brokers have had to source each of these technologies individually.
For the past three years, our team has been focused on developing a new platform. Our team of 15 people has been working full-time to conceptualize how a complete all-in-one solution could work, develop the technology in-house, and bring a solution to the market.
What were you doing before Brokermate came about? How did that experience translate into you deciding to form Brokermate?
The Brokermate team comes from a brokerage and Forex background.
When dealing with customers, we could see the lack of a single, comprehensive brokerage solution in the market. That lead us to start work on the Brokermate platform.
What is your operational structure like?
We are a team of 15 people centrally located in the United States. Our amazing team of developers and designers have years of experience in developing platforms and financial tools.
Surrounding our product team is a dedicated group of Brokermate employees who are focused on accounting, customer support, IT, marketing, and sales. This atmosphere is responsible for our accomplishments thus far and our ability to move rapidly to meet the needs of our customers.
Dave Schramm (far left) and the Brokermate team at the iFX Expo in Hong Kong earlier this year.
What areas do you think are particularly underserved in the FX industry today?
The largest gap in the trading space is that there are no all-in-one solutions.
The industry has grown over the years with technology companies providing individual components.
This means a broker has to source several different solutions and then integrate them together. Then, on top of that, you have to use a support team to integrate all of the technology.
This is not a cost-effective, or even operationally efficient, way of doing business. We think our solution fills that gap.
Where do you see the biggest opportunity right now in the retail trading market - what do both traders and brokers want?
People want to simplify. The rise in smart devices and assistive technology is a corollary to our desire to simplify and use technology to improve our lives. If my refrigerator can connect to the internet, and Amazon’s Alexa can give me the weather, why do we accept outdated technology when it comes to the way we run a brokerage business and place trades?
Technology platforms must evolve to meet the expectations of brokers and their customers. So we see broker’s wanting a simple solution that means they can focus more on business development and growing their customer base, instead of worrying about both the efficiency and operations of their technology.
Traders want something that works and lives the way they do: on-the-go and on demand. In practice, that means mobile trading. But any mobile application has to be fluid and intuitive to use. Traders may want analytical tools, but they don’t want something that’s overly complex and difficult to use.
What sort of company do you envision using your technology?
Brokermate offers two versions of its platform, Lite and Pro. Both are offered as a monthly subscription fee. Brokermate handles maintenance and feature enhancements for the broker and there are no customer or transaction fees.
Pro is for licensed brokers looking to streamline their business and operate from one, comprehensive platform and is offered at $4,950 USD per month
Lite is for introducing brokers (IBs) that want more control of their client experience. That could be an individual managing a small set of traders or a fully-fledged company with a large client base.
For instance, IBs can sign up clients, set pricing and have a clear view of the revenue that they are generating. Lite is offered at $495 USD per month.
The process is so easy that we believe brokers and IBs can be up and running in an hour after signing up.
