Prime brokerage firm TopFX has recently promoted Omar Al-Janabi to take on an expanded role as global head of sales and business development.
He has stepped into the newly created position following a successful tenure with the broker’s UAE business. This expansion of responsibilities greatly augments his oversight at the company.
Omar was instrumental in leading TopFX’s efforts to secure its new presence in Dubai as it seeks to focus on providing customizable liquidity solutions to the region’s diverse clientele.
In a recent interview, Omar discussed many cutting-edge advancements in the company’s product suite. He also highlighted innovations and new offerings that TopFX has launched since he joined the firm as a regional manager back in July 2021.
Firstly, Omar noted that he landed at TopFX just as the company was expanding its offering into the retail trading arena.
“I considered it an opportunity because our management had a clear picture of what they wanted to achieve and how they wanted to be different compared to the competitors,” he said.
While Omar’s role initially focused on penetrating the MENA region, the infrastructure he established inside the MENA team proved “very effective” and resulted in his recent promotion.
“Since last year, TopFX has experienced tremendous growth in terms of deposits and generated volume across all regions.”
Speaking of his mandate for growing the BD team globally and what was the biggest challenge in doing this, Omar explains that it was to persuade candidates to choose TopFX over rivals and renew their faith in what they can achieve.
“Brokers might often make unreal claims about offering uncapped commissions and a perfect working environment. Unfortunately, candidates eventually find out that reality is a lot different than they thought. They lose trust or just give up on their dreams.”
“I recently read that over 75% of applicants would research a company’s reputation as an employer before submitting their resume. I consider this part an advantage because TopFX’s reputation is strong.”
TopFX digs further into retail space
Retail FX space has been historically a crowded and diversified marketplace, yet it remains interesting to find out how players in this industry are able to differentiate themselves or meet client demand. And, more importantly, the relevant regulations dramatically changed and thus have been set on a new path for retail trading sectors, with more protection for clients and more stringent rules for brokers.
Elaborating on this, Omar spoke a little bit about how TopFX has enhanced its retail-focused solutions, lowered spreads to the absolute minimum, and enabled partners to create customizable rebate plans. On top of that, he highlighted how being a liquidity and technology provider for 12 years has given the broker a competitive advantage in terms of customizing deals and offering unbeatable trading conditions.
“We started as an institutional broker and offered our services to many other brokers before opening our doors to retail traders. We have been in the industry since 2010 and we have team members who work in the company for more than 10 years.”
And instead of hiding behind a big corporation that throws a lot of money at marketing hoping to have people find them, TopFX attempts at adding value to their potential customers as early as possible.
“At TopFX, we know very well that investors all over the world need and we strive to provide top-notch conditions to all. We are improving existing markets through listening to our clients’ needs and transparently conveying their messages to our top management. We are on a mission of expanding our global teams and keep hiring talent across the world remotely,” he added.
That said, Omar shared his thoughts on how attending trade shows might sound like a cost-effective way to build business. He added that TopFX plans to participate in many world-class expositions in many regions worldwide.
“Additionally, we have planned to attend as many expos and business events as possible, host seminars and meet our clients and partners to shake their hands and build a positive working relationship.”
Meanwhile, Omar explained the company’s methodology surrounding attracting a top notch talent pool amid fierce competition for good candidates.
As he states, “Our corporate culture encourages collaboration within our team and departments over the competition. When hiring, we focused on identifying the right talent and onboarded rising stars; I like to use the term ‘’Galacticos’’ to show my trust in the potential that our employees have as well as the opportunity that TopFX offers.”
What it takes to stand out
Despite cementing a leading place within a crowded industry, many brokers face the same problems plaguing its competitors. Difficulty breaking into new markets has also driven many companies to look for alternatives.
Omar explained what exactly makes their offering stand out when it comes to existing and new brokers who are entering the market.
First, he acknowledges that the sector has become fairly saturated and overly competitive while grappling with toughening regulations. But he believes that there’s always plenty of room for any provider to distinguish his offering from the crowd.
In addition to education, to be successful, Omar says any broker needs to build trust with clients by providing world class trade execution, pricing and customer service. Financial literacy, he continues, is also extremely important nowadays, so having the right tools, resources and knowledge about what’s going on in the market are more important than ever.
With new segments of the market becoming aware of their finances and starting to make their own investment decisions, especially that of first-time investors, consumer expectations and demands continue to change and evolve. It is then up to them as a business to also change and evolve the products and services and to adapt the way they engage with consumers if they want to remain competitive.
“We are focusing on all markets equally and seeking partners and educational academies to work globally. Taking into account that younger traders are showing interest in the forex market and that forex trading is becoming more accessible via mobile applications, we optimized the TopFX cTrader mobile platform by adding new features like push notifications. Of course, we offer many other tools such as signals from the renowned providers Trading central and AutoChartist.”
