Andrey Dashin’s two companies, forex brokers ForexTime and Alpari, look to go more head-to-head for new business.

It was bound to happen sooner or later…. LeapRate has learned that Cyprus-based forex broker ForexTime has opened its first office outside the island, with the initiation of a new rep office in London.

Normally, this would not be (big) news — any regulated forex broker in any EU jurisdiction can open an office in any other EU country, thanks to MiFID. And indeed, lately we’ve seen several Cyprus forex brokers look to rebrand as pan-EU or as London-based brokers, following the Cyprus-EU bailout crisis in the spring, despite the fact that no clients of Cyprus forex brokers were directly hurt in that episode.

However this is different. ForexTime, if you’ll recall, is a relatively new forex broker, born of the decision by Alpari to shutter Alpari Cyprus. Alpari shareholder Andrey Dashin decided to keep the Alpari Cyprus team intact, and with virtually the complete ex Alpari Cyprus management team he backed the (re-)birth of ForexTime, which launched earlier this year.

Dashin remains involved in the strategy and direction of both companies. And until now, it appeared as if each company would stay out of the way of the other. Alpari has grown into one of the world’s largest retail forex brokers out of its headquarters in London under the leadership of CEO Daniel Skowronski, with Alpari Russia separately run out of Moscow (and also reporting record volume metrics). ForexTime was strategically aiming at serving (mainly) other parts of the world.

With ForexTime now opening an actual London office, that balance may change, and the companies are likely to be going head-to-head for new business, in the more-lucrative UK trading market. Nothing wrong with that of course, increased competition usually yields better results for both traders and the forex brokers themselves.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.