Despite enjoying its best year on record in 2024 – both in terms of revenues and trading volumes – it has felt as though things have been a little quiet over at IC Markets.
The firm has not been as aggressive in marketing, for example, as some of its peers. And yet a lot appears to be brewing under the surface.
On Wednesday, the brokerage group announced that it has hired Jason Hughes as its General Manager for the Middle East as part of a new expansion strategy. Hughes was most recently at eToro and has also held senior roles at IG Group and CMC Markets.
“I’m delighted to have joined IC Markets, at a time where we are investing in developing our client offering, expanding our global footprint and presence in the region,” the new IC Markets executive told TradeInformer.
“In general, MENA has seen a lot of activity in recent years in the trading and investment space, with many different market participants from both traditional finance and the large crypto firms setting up new hubs in the region. To have one of the largest and established brands in retail trading expanding here is great news for the industry and for clients.”
Hughes is the latest in a series of key hires IC Markets has made over the last six months to invigorate its global growth plans. That includes bringing in new Chief Marketing Officer Tony Philip and Gescard Abiel-Hessen, who will work as the broker’s Head of Business Development. Both are based in Dubai.
On the trading team, Vasilis Sotiriou has rejoined the firm’s Cyprus office as Global Head of Risk, and Angus Walker – who worked at the broker previously too – has been made Global Head of Trading. Chi-Loong Ho has also moved to the broker as Global Head of Trading Operations.
IC Markets: Changing with the times
All of those are likely to be familiar names to readers, given their experience in the online trading industry. They also represent something like a quiet reset IC Markets has been making over the last 12 months.
Although the broker has continued to perform well – it had the highest volumes globally in Q4 last year – TradeInformer understands that more plans are afoot to restructure the group and push for more growth in the months ahead.
Some of that has been visible over the last 12 months. For example, the acquisition of a new license in Kenya was part of the broker’s efforts to expand its presence in Africa. TradeInformer understands that, although it has been less than 12 months, that license has already borne fruit, both in the local Kenyan market and wider region.
Back in the Middle East, the broker told TradeInformer that it is in the process of acquiring a new license in the UAE. The goal is to provide services that are more suited to professional clients and financial institutions.
Those two licences reflect a change in the dynamics of the industry that we’ve seen develop over the last five years. A decade ago, the idea that nine of the ten largest brokers in Cyprus would not take EU clients would have been crazy. Today that’s the reality.
At the same time, the increase in both disposable income and access to cheap smartphones mean other markets offer a much more compelling growth opportunity than European countries do.
This is one of the reasons Dubai has become something of a hub for IC Markets, with the broker’s main decision makers now based in the city state.
To further support its growth activities, the broker is also opening a new operations office in Malaysia and growing its existing technology development hubs in India and the Philippines. Entities in Australia and Cyprus are also being siloed so that they can operate without the support of the broader IC Markets group.
Go big or go home
The final piece in the puzzle for IC Markets is a new set of marketing initiatives, which are expected to roll out in the months ahead.
The broker has already formed partnerships with Bloomberg and World Table Tennis. The latter partnership started in 2023, with the broker renewing its agreement in the final quarter of last year.
That deal will help give the broker global exposure, particularly in several large Asian markets and across the Middle East. However, the company plans on growing these sorts of large-scale sponsorship initiatives.
Although it did not share precise details, the broker told TradeInformer it has more sports sponsorship deals in the pipeline, across both motorsports and mixed-martial arts. The company is also in the process of making further media partnerships.
Part of me wants to steal (and paraphrase) that apocryphal Napoleon quote about a sleeping lion awakening and shaking the world. That wouldn’t really be accurate. A company that had its best year on record was hardly asleep.
It seems more apt to say that the world is changing and IC Markets is changing with it. It’s what any good company would do.
