The island of Cyprus is forex brokers' favorite destination for a number of reasons: the ease of setting up a brokerage house, the reasonable requirements of local regulator CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission), great tax laws, etc. Oh, yeah – and the nice weather; as I am writing this, winter is in full swing here and I dread going out. Another place where it is freezing in the winter is Russia – and perhaps that is what drove Andrey Dashin, founder and main shareholder of the Russian broker Alpari, to Cyprus.
But instead of lying on the beach, Mr. Dashin will be doing what he does best: running an online forex brokerage. ForexTime (FXTM) is the name of his new company and it has just obtained its license from CySEC. After a brief activation time, the new broker is expected to start accepting customers early in 2013, provided that the world doesn't end before that as some gloomily predict. Once it is up an running, the new broker will be offering forex, commodities, shares, indices, precious metals and other instruments for trading.
There is already one ForexTime broker existing – in March this year Alpari Nigeria rebranded into FXTM. The new company, however, is a separate unit and is not a subsidiary of Alpari's Nigerian branch. For the time being, it is not yet clear whether Andrey Dashin will be distancing himself from Alpari and pursuing a different direction.
“It is my ambition for ForexTime to be a game-changer. I know that ForexTime is going to change the industry for the better as my team and I possess the combined experience and commitment needed to elevate the industry to another level,” Dashin shared in an official statement. “With the current global crisis having created a unique set of conditions in the Forex market, ForexTime represents an adaptation to an evolving market by fulfilling investors’ and traders’ new demands and expectations,” he added.
Now, I have to be honest with you: I don't really see how one broker revolutionizes the entire forex scene – it seems to me that there is little room for innovation when it comes to forex trading services, let alone completely changing the game – or perhaps this is just me being old-fashioned. Dashin promises that he and his team are already developing ground-breaking products and services that will give customers a better trading experience and faster execution. But hey – we'll see.
About ForexTime
Led by Mr Andrey Dashin, founder of Alpari, ForexTime Ltd is committed to providing the tools and support to ensure maximum performance for traders. ForexTime Ltd will offer trading and other investment services in Forex, commodities, precious metals, shares, indices and other financial instruments.
ForexTime Ltd has been granted a license as a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), license number 185/12.