Iskandar Najjar, CEO of Equiti Group reflects on the company’s presence at the upcoming Finance Magnates London Summit next week.
Are you excited for FMLS:23 and how can your company benefit from attending such an event this year?
After attending expos around the world, we are really looking forward to coming home to London and ending the year on another high note - and FMLS always delivers.
It’s an excellent platform for networking with other industry leaders, financial experts, and potential business partners. This year we’re hoping to showcase our latest offering, establish more meaningful connections, and to further expand our market reach.
Every event has something unique. What are you hoping to get out of FMLS:23 or expecting to see?
Participation in FMLS:23 allows us to contribute to the overall discourse in the financial sector by sharing our knowledge and insights through presentations and discussions.
We’re excited to catch up with other industry pioneers and to explore the latest developments across the sector that will be on show. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with clients and gain valuable feedback on our services, which aligns with our mission to provide top-notch bespoke liquidity to the industry.
The industry continues to evolve in 2023. How has the playing field changed since last year and where does your company fit into this trend?
I’d say the past year’s been pretty exciting for both Equiti and the industry at large. There’s been huge advancements in AI, a lot of geopolitical impact on markets, and lots of new developments in the regulatory space as well.
A major focus for us has been on digitisation and adopting new technology that enhances our efficiencies, reduces costs, improves decision-making processes, and massively expands our reach. This is going particularly well for us and there are lots of exciting projects in development, including our recent acquisition of payment services provider, Cloud Invest. Innovation is very much at the heart of what we do, but we have a regulation-first mindset, which really cements the foundations of our every step.
It’s always been a part of our mission at Equiti to go beyond traditional financial solutions and to continue raising industry standards, and we’re thrilled to be incorporating physical commodities, digital asset exchanges, payment solutions and cutting-edge trading technology into the Equiti Group.
FMLS:23 attracts the biggest brands, including yours. How does your company stand out in the crowd and in a competitive field?
Equiti Capital stands out through a combination of unique strategies, exceptional services, and a commitment to client satisfaction that enables ECP and Professional clients to face their clients wherever they trade. We’re a very people-driven business and our team works diligently to provide personal, dedicated, and international support that goes beyond traditional services.
In technical terms, there’s lots of benefits that we offer. Thanks to our high-volume top-of-book, stable spreads and low margins, our clients can realise their revenue potential and grow their business with custom liquidity solutions. We’re also competitive by offering our service without minimum volume fees, session fees, nor API fees.
Looking ahead, are there any challenges you foresee in Q4 2023 and beyond and how is your company built to overcome or address these?
Rapid change is a natural part of our industry, but the main challenges today for liquidity and institutional investors include market fragmentation, liquidity supply, cybersecurity, and constantly evolving regulation.
All liquidity providers need to be able to adapt to the continued proliferation of electronic trading platforms that have fragmented markets and implement systems to navigate such a complex ecosystem effectively. For Equiti, we’ve ensured these processes are in place and have successfully established solid relationships and procured seriously deep liquidity via our Tier 1 partners. I think it is essential to have the right data architecture in place in order to be able to understand what you want to automate and the necessity behind it.
Evolving financial regulations are also needed for the security and stability of the industry, and with new financial sectors becoming established we can expect further changes on the horizon too.
Luckily for us, we built Equiti on a regulation-first mindset and continue to pursue active discourse with regulators around the world to make sure we’re prepped for new developments whilst remaining able to deliver our services from a solid foundation.
We’ve also heavily invested in our headcount, internal efficiencies and established a few new offices, such as our new HQ in London Wall, in order to strengthen our ability to pre-empt and overcome future challenges.
The world has changed, remote access to talent has become more accessible than ever before, but what has not changed is that having the right team is essential. We’re committed to maintain our growth trajectory and with the right team in place, we’re confident that will continue.
