Forex Magnates has learned that Tacirler Securities, which operates the Turkey-based forex brokerage FXTCR, is partnering with Istanbul’s famous soccer club Galatasaray to launch a new brand called GS Forex.

FXTCR, the FX STP broker, is the forex arm of Tacirler Securities founded in 1991. Tacirler Securities is the largest independent broker in Turkey and the third-largest including bank-owned brokers.

Galatasaray is one of Turkey’s strongest brands with an estimated global fan base of 38 million people, and an impressive online social networks following of over 10 million. It is a common practice in Turkey for banks and other financial companies to create brands targeting specific sports club fans, and FXTCR’s entry into this partnership is a sign that FX brokers are gaining significance in Turkey. The Turkish retail FX market had a “remarkable” growth in recent years, reaching a volume of $1 trillion in the first half of the year, as Forex Magnates reported last week.

Speaking to Forex Magnates, Managing Director of FXTCR Anil Abbak, explained that the partnership with Galatasaray aims not only to leverage its brand’s strength in Turkey, but also globally in order to attract international FX traders. Sport clubs sponsorship’s are usually a very expensive deal and thus serve as a way for companies to signal clients they are well established in their markets. Notable examples for FX brokerages that sponsor sports team are, Alpari which signed a 3-year deal with West Ham United in 2011, GAIN Capital’s recent sponsorship of Manchester City, and FxPro that sponsors two Formula 1 teams. Forex Magnates reviewed the practice of sports sponsorship’s earlier this year, but GS Forex will be the first time a completely new FX brand was launched by a sports club.

FXTCR offers only Turkish language support at the moment, but it will, along with the GS Forex brand, offer additional languages further down the line, according to Mr Abbak. “We will definitely focus on attracting global fx actors in the future,” he said, and added that he believes the firm is positioned to entice clients from abroad very soon.

Currently, there are some regulatory costs for a Turkish broker wishing to accept international clients, according to Mr. Abbak, but, “Once those issues will be overcome by having smoother tax and operational processes, it will be easier to attract those clients based on the strong regulation of Capital Markets Board (CMB) and Takasbank.” The CMB is the financial regulatory and supervisory agency of Turkey, and Takasbank is the transaction clearing bank for the Istanbul Stock Exchange that segregates client accounts on a 1 to 1 basis.

The cooperation agreement will be sealed in a signing ceremony on Thursday, October 31st, in the Türk Telekom Arena. As part of the partnership, and in addition to Tacirler Yatırım being an official sponsor of the Galatasaray Sports Club in the Turkish league, the name of its volleyball team is going to change to Galatasaray FXTCR.