Ultima Markets, which recently gained a United Kingdom licence, has strengthened its top management by onboarding Gareth Derbyshire as the Chief Strategy Officer, FinanceMagnates.com has learned exclusively.
Ultima Markets’ Push for the UK
The appointment came as the broker prepares to launch its services in the United Kingdom next year, after recently securing a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) licence.
Derbyshire is a compliance expert who spent years working with several top forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) brands in London. He has about 25 years of experience in compliance within the wider financial services industry.
He entered the retail trading industry in 2010, becoming CMC Markets’ Head of Compliance for the UK and Europe, a role he held for over two years. He later joined the UK unit of Plus500 as Head of Compliance and moved to ETX Capital in late 2015 as Head of Compliance & MLRO.
ETX Capital was later rebranded to OvalX a few years after Derbyshire's exit and eventually shuttered in March 2023. Capital.com bought OvalX's client book.
A New Name among Big Names
Meanwhile, Ultima Markets’ prospective entry into the UK shows the potential of the saturated UK market for non-London-based brokers. Although the UK retail leveraged trading market is dominated by names like IG and CMC Markets, an Ultima spokesperson earlier said that it “can find our space in the mature market and opportunities” and “provide value to UK traders.”
Read more: “Traders Gravitate Towards Established Names, We Must Build Trust”
“The decision to enter the market was not taken lightly,” the spokesperson added.
Apart from the newly obtained FCA licence, Ultima also holds licences from regulators in South Africa and Mauritius. The broker’s primary market appears to be the Asia Pacific, which is considered one of the top growth regions.
