Making a Mark in Asia

China is one of the world’s largest economies, and Cyprusbased company PriorFX is gearing up to cater to the ever-increasing appetite of clients in the Asian republic.

China’s currency, the Yuan Renminbi, has soared in global FX trading and has become the ninth most actively traded currency in the world. Viktor Virszta, CEO of PriorFX, says that his firm caught on to the large opportunities China offers in order to drive growth and gain market share for the newly set up brokerage firm.

PriorFX is a relative newcomer on the FX scene. What would you highlight as the main achievements of the company thus far?

PriorFX started its operations in 2014, after receiving our licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). From the beginning, our shareholders backed the company through regular injections of fresh capital to maintain the necessary cash reserves and healthy capital adequacy ratios. In July 2014, we made a substantial break-through in the Chinese market. Demonstrating outstanding growth rates, the company reached a trade volume of US$ 2 billion within the first six months of its activity, and we tripled this by the end of the year.

PriorFX is a Straight Through Processing (STP) broker. What are the main benefits for clients?

An STP broker assures that the client’s order goes directly to the FX market, without an intermediary. We provide a mixture of real time quotes for a broad range of currency pairs from different liquidity providers, and the client can choose the best available one and make a deal.

Do you think most traders see forex as an entertainment or as a money-making tool?

Most of our clients are coming to us with the firm intention to make some money. We constantly stress that gains on forex are not pure luck. To be successful, you should constantly educate yourself and have a strong commitment and patience to follow a strategy, while managing all associated risks. To assist our clients, we give them access to educational materials and a system of non-live training accounts, where they can sharpen their skills and get the necessary practical experience.

Do you view increased regulation across the capital markets as a burden that has to be managed or as an opportunity for fast-growing, regulated trading venues like PriorFX?

Actually both. We understand the current trend for more regulation and the underlying reasons, such as the financial crisis and bankruptcies of institutions, which initiated these developments. While we support these developments, we noticed that FX trade regulations were implemented by squeezing them artificially into the existing Investment Markets regulatory framework, and not taking sufficiently into account FX’s peculiarities and business practices.

With China as one of your core markets, which other countries are you seeking to place a greater strategic focus on?

We feel quite strong in China. We have a developed network of introducing brokers in a number of major cities and have built up a reputation for the fast and accurate repayment of funds to clients, as well as the quick and reliable execution of orders. We also feel comfortable in certain EU countries, such as Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK. In the next few years, we are planning to move seriously into Spain and later into some Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. We are also looking at Russia, the Emirates, Greece and Vietnam as potential strategic markets for PriorFX.