Openness, transparency and a strong people centric culture are worthy attributes for success. Roberto d’Ambrosio, CEO of leading Forex and CFD broker, Axiory, highlights the difference his organisation makes to both the industry sector and wider community.
Trading in Forex (FX) and Contracts for Difference (CFDs) such as energy and precious metal has, as a result of increasingly sophisticated technology and a fast moving world, become far more accessible to traders and investors.
Belize based Axiory, with an authorised representative office in Dubai, is a leading Forex broker with a difference. With ethical trading and a firm people centric approach, results have been outstanding. Established in 2012 as a new broker in the market, Axiory is now a global online trading provider helping thousands of traders to succeed.
Roberto d’Ambrosio, Axiory CEO, and winner of Business Worldwide Magazine’s Global CEO in FX Brokerage award, tells us more about current industry trends together with an insight into Axiory’s unique culture – a deep rooted focus on openness, transparency and ethics – and how this has also been paramount in coping with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Foreign exchange and CFD trading is a complex and competitive market place. Axiory has enjoyed phenomenal success as a relative newcomer to the space. How does the organisation differ from its competitors?
We firmly believe the difference lies in just that, being different! Firstly, we identified a potential gap in the market as historically traders had faced challenges owing to poor execution, false advertising and brokerage companies failing to uphold their code of ethics. Axiory was founded to fulfil this need, to offer traders both the technology and transparency they deserve and ultimately establish itself as a reliable and reputable trading space fostering valuable long lasting relationships and partnerships across the globe. We’ve continued to build on this success, but will never let complacency slip in. Axiory is committed to moving forward and increasing the value we offer our traders.
The Forex industry has seen increased levels of regulation in relation to compliance and reporting. Can you tell us about current industry trends and Axiory’s strategic approach in responding?
The entire financial sector has witnessed a significant increase in the amount of rules and regulations introduced, especially around anti-money laundering (AML) readiness and scrutiny relating to Know Your Client (KYC) an ethical requirement geared around verifying identities of clients to protect against financial crime.
Axiory has chosen to adopt an extremely proactive strategic approach in dealing with this trend through creating a long term risk management framework encompassing all challenges we’re likely to face in the future. Over time this gives us a distinct competitive advantage as having identified challenges, we’ll be ready to tackle them in an effective and timely manner.
A further evident trend is an increased maturity of clients and investors who demand transparency, fairness and flawless support from their broker partners. In essence, this is Axiory’s key principle. I’ve always been in favour of implementing a coherent strategic attitude where everything revolves around the needs of our clients. Many may claim to be ‘client centric’ but to do so involves costs and a culture which in fact focuses on people as the winning aspect of the business. In contrast, we realise that success comes from satisfied customers. We achieve this with a solution-oriented approach treating all our traders as individuals through sophisticated technology, relevant products, and dedicated office teams passionate about going the extra mile.
Axiory is very much an organisation which promotes the ‘human touch’ as a vital ingredient to its success. Do you see the role of technology disrupting this?
We need to invest in new technologies to offer our clients real time access to global financial markets as well as using technological opportunities to educate. However, we feel there needs to be a defined balance between deploying greater, perhaps more automated technologies for trading whilst still retaining the personal touch. The use of advanced technology demands an appropriate knowledge of how to evaluate such instruments and deploy them in accordance with traders financial profile and risk appetite. We believe that they should not be used to cut corners in a journey to success and that the power of technology and ease of access could easily pose threats if not handled correctly. The importance of human expertise, experience and know-how is invaluable here.
‘Axiory Intelligence’ is an example of technology which reflects the personal culture of the organisation. Perhaps you could explain more about this new structure.
Axiory Intelligence is an online market news and analysis provider offering up to date coverage of global financial and commodity trading markets. Led and managed by our industry experts, it provides information which investors and traders at all levels of experience need to make informed decisions. Importantly, it complements our core values – fairness, transparency, care for all stakeholders but with traders being the most important. Instilling these fundamental values was the prime reason for creating this visionary product. Our aim is to help the industry to grow in a sustainable way and quality information, education and advice is key to achieve this goal.
Unforeseen or unprecedented circumstances can easily highlight cracks within even the tightest of organisations. Again, Axiory has risen to the fore with its seamless operation during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a ‘business as usual’ service to its clients. How has the organisation achieved this?
At Axiory we’ve always welcomed a flexible working environment as part of our people centric culture. We immediately responded to the challenge incorporating new contingency measures to ensure continuity and our personnel have adapted to fully remote working to comply with this. Our focus has centred on three main areas – operational stability, protecting our clients’ assets and the deployment of remote working, and I’m proud of the fact that through providing care for our community and clients, these objectives have been fulfilled.
Do you have extra contingency measures in place should this crisis persist and have you instigated any polices to help your employees handle things effectively?
The Forex and global commodity trading sector centres around risk, uncertainty and finding the best solutions. It’s a natural extension of our business to cope with future planning and coping with the unexpected and therefore COVID-19 is no exception. We’re constantly revising continuity plans and conducting stress tests, and we’re confident of remaining best placed to continue serving the needs of our investors, traders and employees.
The health and well-being of our employees is always at the heart of all we do. We listen to our employees, understand their challenges and work with them to resolve any issues they may have. Initiatives ranging from educational and training opportunities to online fitness classes have been put in place, as well as wider ranging projects to help those more deeply impacted by the crisis. Support packages and financial aid programmes to assist those in need across pandemic torn countries have proved an extremely popular means of being able to give back to society.
For an organisation which prides itself on an ethos of placing people at the core of its operations, this is a further demonstration of citizenship and social responsibility in action. Being able to give to those in such dire need is not only a wonderful initiative, but a gratifying, whilst humbling endeavour.
Making a real impact truly defines Axiory’s role in both the Forex and global commodities trading sector and the wider global community as a whole.
Further information on markets, trading conditions, platforms, tools and the Axiory way of working can be found at https://www.axiory.com. Relevant, up to date analytical information, financial analysis and trading news can be found at Axiory Intelligence, https://intelligence.axiory.com/ the online platform for daily coverage of global financial and commodity trading markets
