Just a month after the Brexit ‘Leave’ vote, Singapore-based global forex and commodities broker PhillipCapital Group unveiled a new look for its FCA regulated UK retail arm, PhillipCapital UK. And, the company continues to invest in and grow its business.
Is PhillipCapital concerned about what Brexit might mean for its UK based business? What are its plans for 2016 and beyond?
LeapRate is pleased to speak today with Sean Tan, Head of Derivatives at PhillipCapital UK and a 12 year veteran of the PhillipCapital Group, who explains.
LR: Hi Sean, and thanks for joining us today. Please let us know a little more about the PhillipCapital Group, and your UK operation.
Sean: Hi, and thanks for having me. The PhillipCapital group of companies now operates in 16 countries spanning the whole globe but with a specific focus in Asian markets. The group offers a wide variety of financial products from insurance and banking to trading in futures and equities to FX and CFDs. More specifically PhillipCapital UK’s role within the group is to expand the groups offering and global footprint into the European market.
LR: How did you come to the decision to redo the PhillipCapital website? And to go with Design by Structure as your website consultant. What especially do you like about the new site?
Sean: After launching our FX and CFD offering last year we decided that it was time to revamp the look and feel of the website as we are always looking to evolve our own business to the changing landscape of the retail market. Designs by Structure were key in the redesign process as they really took the time to dive deep into our business and understand what we wanted from our website. The team are really pleased with the website, the fresh new look put us at the forefront of design in the FX space and doesn’t over complicate a user’s time on the website so they can find out what they need quickly.
LR: It seems as though the FCA regulated brokerage market is getting increasingly crowded and competitive – large domestic incumbents, growing domestic mid-size brokers, many foreign based brokers…. How do you differentiate PhillipCapital UK with traders?
Sean: As we all know the market is very crowded and competition is fierce but we feel that our service combined with our reliable 100% STP offering and history attracts clients and more importantly retains them. Clients have a lot of choice to switch but we find they stick with us for longer because they don’t feel like a number on someone’s books. As an example of our commitment to improving our offering, we relocated our servers following less than optimal execution speeds and now our figures show that the average execution speed in FX for July was 73ms.
We also want to add more value for our Premium clients and therefore have introduced a new rebate scheme that runs for all Premium account holders, now they can benefit from a $10 per million rebate across all our products.
PhillipCapital UK may be a new name in the UK market but in our 40 year history we have gained global experience within a range of financial markets and we aim to provide a reliable, competitive and honest service.
LR: Does Brexit concern you?
Sean: I am positive on the future of the UK following Brexit. It is a unique time in the markets as we wait for Theresa May to invoke article 50 but as a company we are also prepared for the volatility that could ensue especially in the UK and European markets.
In regards to the retail trading market, I think there will be changes ahead. Being based in the UK and regulated by the FCA we feel secure but it will be interesting to see whether some of the smaller firms are still allowed to passport into the UK and we could see some of the smaller brokers struggle to keep up with the stringent regulation.
LR: What are your key plans for the rest of 2016 and beyond? What should we look for from PhillipCapital UK going forward?
Sean: The key plans for us are to continue to grow our customer base while keeping a tight focus on service, we have some projects in the pipeline which we are excited about and I’m sure LeapRate readers will pick up on them as soon as we release them to market.