ICM MENA, the UAE arm of online broker ICM.com, promoted Firas Bechwaty to head of business development today (Monday). He previously held the manager role in the same team.
The unit, part of ICM.com, holds a Category 5 license from the UAE Capital Market Authority (CMA), which covers marketing products and introducing clients. That tier is held by 142 of the 333 active entities on the CMA register, by FinanceMagnates.com's count on Monday.
The capital bar is also lower, requiring AED 500,000 in paid-up capital against around AED 30 million for Category 1, the tier that lets a broker deal for clients itself.
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Five Years of Gulf Moves at ICM.com
The promotion is the latest of several staffing and licensing steps ICM.com has taken in the Gulf since 2021. In March of that year, it promoted Joanne Tayara to director of its Dubai representative office after five years as operations manager there.
The CMA permission was reported in March 2025, when the regulator still operated as the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA). It came about a year after ICM.com decided to give up its UK license.
That exit is now complete on paper. The UK entity, ICM Capital Limited, is listed as no longer authorized on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) register.
Not every move pointed the same way. Wassim Anastasiou, who spent about a decade at ICM.com and rose to director of operations, left to become MENA regional director at Traze in November 2025.
From Key Accounts to Department Head
Bechwaty joined ICM in July 2022 as a business development executive and moved up to manager in August 2024, the company said. Before that he spent five years in account management at One Global Market Limited, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In those roles he managed ICM MENA's largest client accounts directly, working on retention and on new business from existing clients. He said that work showed him how "existing relationships can open up new opportunities."
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The company said his native Arabic and professional English would help it build its presence across the region.
Founder and Chairman Shoaib Abedi said the promotion was "a recognition of his efforts and achievements in this field."
The CMA is one of 12 registers covered by FM Intelligence's license monitoring tool, which tracks more than 150,000 records, alongside the FCA, Abu Dhabi Global Market and Dubai Financial Services Authority lists.
