In a crowded market of trading platforms, many small brokers are aggressively scaling their operations up, especially after the demand surge last year. UK-based Zenfinex, which was founded in 2017 by industry veteran Nick Cooke, is aiming high to tap new international markets.

In a chat with Cooke, Finance Magnates learned that the ‘boutique brokerage’ is expanding in Asia and the Middle East, applying for multiple regulatory licenses.

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“We’ve focused on the UK market initially through our FCA license,” Cooke said. “Our next goal is to move into other regions with Asia and the Middle East being two key regions of focus for the group. We are in the process of a number of regulatory license applications which will assist with expansion plans to gain footprints in these regions.”

Zenfinex is primarily operating with its Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) license gained in early 2019 and the implications of Brexit has forced the broker to suspend its European operations. “We have removed ourselves from acquiring European business until we can completely understand equivalence rules post-Brexit,” Cooke added.

“We have had discussions internally regarding applying for an EU license. We may consider an EU presence in our future plans however not at this stage.”

Building Technologies in-House

Though the broker is still in line to gain additional licenses, it has already established five international offices in 2020 in the markets where it is aiming to target. “Once the necessary regulatory permissions are approved in these key regions, we will allocate budget to expand our team and marketing efforts,” he said.

But, the UK-headquartered brokerage is not limited to geographical expansion. Cooke finds technological advancements to be a driving force for any brokerage company and thus ‘made significant investments into two technology companies.’

Zenfinex is aiming to develop its trading technologies in-house by the second-half of 2021.

“While MetaTrader is still the most popular platform in the industry, we believe investment into our own technology stack not only adds value to the group, it also allows us to drive our longer-term vision with a bit more control of our destiny reducing the reliance on external vendors,” Cooke elaborated.

Copy Trading Is Very Popular

The brokerage, which targets both retail and professional traders, is expanding its services and products to hold on to its client base and also target the rookie traders. It partnered with Pelican Trading by the end of last year for offering copy trading services, which is a hit among new traders who can simply copy the strategies of professionals.

“While the majority of our clients tend to self-trade making their own trading decisions, there is definitely an uptick in appetite for others to learn from and copy experts. It’s certainly a growing trend and one that we did not want to miss,” Cooke added.

“Our trade expert leader board is gathering momentum with many putting up solid trading stats and history. We have plans in 2021 to further expand this service. It’s an interesting area of the trading community and certainly one to watch.”

‘We Aim to Build Zenfinex into a Multi-Asset Trading Hub’

Zenfinex now offers trading services with contracts for difference (CFDs) instruments of forex, metals, indices and commodities. As it is building itself as a multi-asset trading venue, the executive team is now researching crypto assets for listing as their demand skyrockets. However, it cannot offer crypto derivatives to retail clients under the existing FCA license.

“We are in the process of researching the necessary regulatory requirements to offer an innovative crypto solution for clients,” he said.

With many developments, 2020 turned out to be an impressive year for Zenfinex, which also raised £5 million in funding. Now, Cooke believes that 2021 will be ‘strongly geared towards continuing to serve our clients’ needs in the most efficient and productive manner, whilst continuing to pioneer technology innovation and remain ahead of industry trends to provide the best possible trading experience’.

“While competition remains high with a number of long-standing brands, we believe Zenfinex is well-positioned to quickly become a reputable global player with great ambition and a talented team.”