Finance Magnates spoke with Keith Walker, Chief Marketing Development Officer at FVP Trade who shares his perspective on the company's agenda moving forward.
How has the brokerage landscape changed in 2021?
Over the past couple of years, we had to alter our approach towards conducting business as we adapted to multiple lockdown restrictions around the world. The biggest hurdle for us was the prospect of creating live online events, which could still be engaging to our clients, without team members being able to travel there in person. Widespread changes were also made in our approach to acquiring new clients. For large parts of the year, there was a need for operating solely online. To our surprise, prospective customers were still showing a strong desire towards new investment opportunities. Our obligation was to ensure that we continued to provide a world-class service, whilst still working within the confines of strict regulations imposed on the CFD industry. Team members, while working centrally, and often remotely, still had to remain well aware of differences in the guidelines set in each of our clients’ home countries.
In what ways has FVP Trade adjusted to a shifting retail field?
Throughout 2020, the European market slowed dramatically, prompting us to expand our horizons. As 2021 approached, we experienced huge interest from the Asia-Pacific market, leading us to recruit some of the very best brokers from the region. With the emergence of a thriving middle class, particularly in countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, the need for wealth management and trading services rapidly increased. New markets come with their own unique challenges. We needed to make our business appeal to a new potential client base, which has many cultural differences from our own. We acquired leaders to oversee operations in each of these countries, helping us make a smooth transition into a truly global company. The impressive rate of growth we have experienced across the Asia-Pacific region has more than justified this decision, paving the way for further expansion into 2022.
Can you describe the push FVP Trade has made in expanding its CFDs suite?
With the popularity of Cryptocurrencies spilling over to the mainstream, we have greatly improved our crypto offerings. Although we are not a crypto exchange, we are still able to provide CFD options on multiple crypto/fiat pairs. Our main Liquidity provider, Match-Trade, has given us a wide range of products to choose from. In addition to traditional major and minor currency pairs, we now offer many more tradable indices, as well as commodities such as coffee and wheat, as our clients are always seeking new opportunities in the marketplace. One of the more popular instruments clients have started trading is VIX, the volatility index, which is a real-time index representing the market's expectations for the relative strength of near-term price changes of the S&P 500.
In what regions does FVP Trade see the largest area of growth or potential?
We are already experiencing rapid growth in Asia and we expect this to continue throughout next year. We have created regional hubs across multiple cities in China, as well as Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia. There is a high financial literacy throughout Asia, so the potential here is endless. We plan to further increase our presence, particularly in South-East Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. Once we have established a foothold there, we plan to expand into new markets in India and the Middle-East. Expansion comes with its own challenges however, as each of these countries are in the process of maturing their own specific financial regulations, which we must adhere to in order to set up a base there. We believe that by increasing our physical presence in each country, it will bring us closer to our customers. A personal touch is what is needed after the past year of remote working and the difficulties that came with it.
Can you talk about the impetus behind the deal with the Blackburn Rovers and how does this partnership help FVP Trade?
The company decided to step up its marketing strategy earlier in the year, and one of these strategies was the decision to become an official partner of Blackburn Rovers F.C. for the 2021-22 season. This move saw us become the club’s official website and social media sponsor with an advertising presence around their stadium. This deal will increase our brand awareness worldwide and enable more traders to get to know more about our company. FVP Trade will not stop there though, we have deals, in principle, with leading European teams in place for next season as we look to expand our brand across Europe and beyond.
In what ways does FVP Trade cater to newer traders?
Well first off, our educational suite is a leading provider of trading concepts, fundamental analysis, risk management, trading strategies, technical analysis, educational videos and daily expert analysis to help traders to develop into professional CFD traders. We understand that our customers come to us at various different stages of their trading career and we tailor our educational suite to each level of that career cycle from beginner through to intermediate and advanced. As a feature of its focus on education, FVP Trade plans on running online educational webinars, which are planned to replace the actual seminars the company previously held. These webinars will be conducted by expert traders and investors who will share their insight and knowledge with our clients. In addition to this, clients will be able to view daily market analysis collated by the company’s top analysts. Educating traders continues to be a major area of focus for FVP Trade, and will remain one of our largest areas of focus going forward. This will be made available on our company’s revamped website.
What are FVP Trade’s plans in Q4 2021 and beyond?
Moving forward, the company will continue to expand, acquiring new customers, and pursuing sustainable growth. That said, the company as a whole, including the Asia-Pacific and European regions, has seen tremendous growth in numbers. The customer retention rate has been steady, with deposits almost doubling in 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year, mainly due to strong sales figures coming from our newly established Asian offices. As the world returns to a new form of normal, the company is expected to deliver a very strong financial year for 2021. We have more than 50 new offices scheduled to be established globally, including a large, state of the art, 2700m² facility in Shenzhen, China, that is near completion. We are due to launch the company's internal IPO share trading in 2022, and looking further ahead, our holdings company is planning to list an IPO on the Nasdaq in 2024.
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