Exclusive: FXCM CEO Brendan Callan on rebranding, institutional FX, managing through COVID and more
FNG Exclusive Interview… With Retail FX broker FXCM changing up its logo for just the second time in its 20+ year history, we thought that it would be a good time to catch up with FXCM CEO Brendan Callan and learn more about the company’s new logo / tagline, and how things are going at what is arguably one of the most truly global of all the Retail FX brokers.
Brendan Callan has been with FXCM for 20 years, and has served as CEO since 2017 overseeing the rebirth of FXCM as a major player in both Retail and Institutional FX. Here is what he had to say about FXCM’s rebranding, managing a global organization through the COVID pandemic, institutional FX, and what’s ahead.
FNG: Hi Brendan, and thanks for joining us today. Please let us know a little more about FXCM’s new client initiative. Why is that important now and how would you say that FXCM has differentiated itself? Also, tell us more about the new logo and tagline, “Client First – Trader Driven.” Out of curiosity, were other major changes to the FXCM logo (or taglines) considered?
Brendan: We put ‘client first’ in our logo because it represents FXCM’s core values. We pride ourselves on our client service levels and we demonstrate that, in part, through our quick response times. Our average live-chat pick-up time is five seconds and average call hold times are just 45 seconds. Many firms are removing phone numbers and chat buttons from their websites and directing clients to FAQs and client forums for support. We don’t go that route. Our clients trade in very active markets so it is important to us that when they need assistance they get it quickly and from a well-trained rep.
‘Trader driven’ reflects that we are a company of traders servicing traders. Our priorities are largely determined by what our clients want to trade and what additional tools they want to trade with. We compile client feedback and comments three times a day. That list determines where our resources get allocated and what we deliver next.
We did consider a couple other logos and tag lines, but this one definitely garnered the most excitement.
FNG: What has it been like managing a truly global organisation over the past 18 months through the COVID pandemic? And what major lessons are you taking to the post-COVID world we’re now entering? Do you see any behavioral trend change in your clients?
Brendan: It has been inspiring. COVID-19 has had a big impact on the business world and an even bigger impact on everyone’s personal lives. Our team responded in an amazing way. With schools and day-cares closed and a million other ways home life became more complicated, the FXCM team worked through those complications and made sure the client experience didn’t degrade. We were able to adapt and still provide a best-in-class service. Many companies claim to put their clients first but then don’t show much conviction when things get tough. We knew that Covid and the challenges that came with it would be an opportunity to show just how much we value our clients. I’m proud of and constantly humbled by the team at FXCM.
As far as lessons to carry forward, I am sure every CEO would say something about the importance of human connection. No matter how strong a company culture is, carrying that culture through a long stretch of only connecting by conference calls and Zoom meetings is very difficult. We look forward to getting back into the office to see each other again.
Overall, our clients’ behaviour did not change much, other than them spending more time trading than usual. Most of our clients have jobs and trade for a couple of hours in the evening after work. Over the past year, many of them had more time on their hands and traded more actively. The heightened volatility also drove more trading activity. Last year we saw events that we may not experience again in our lifetime. The frequency of exchange closures due to price movements and oil crashing into negative territory are not common events and presented a lot of trading opportunities. Crucially, throughout all the craziness, our platforms had no significant problems. Many brokers were reporting big outages and many had to stop taking on new clients as damage control. FXCM was business as usual throughout.
FNG: How has the institutional arm of FXCM been faring lately, FXCM Pro and FXCM Prime? Do you see that as a major part of what you want to accomplish going forward?
Brendan: FXCM Pro and FXCM Prime have been growing very well. Institutional business is a big part of our plans going forward. FXCM has spent two decades building trading platforms and APIs that can execute millions of trades a day. We also spent those decades sending interbank liquidity providers (LPs) billions and billions in volume. We have become a top tier client with each of those LPs and now benefit from the best pricing they are willing to provide. By using FXCM Pro, institutional clients can leap frog that cost and effort by utilizing our technology and trading lines.
We are now pioneering Prime Brokerage for CFD instruments. FXCM is uniquely positioned to offer this service as we already have connectivity to the big CFD LPs and to the ECNs and bridge providers. CFD Prime brings the netting, rollover fee, and margin benefits enjoyed in the FX market to those trading CFD products. I see CFD Prime as big driver of our growth in the institutional space. FXCM can provide execution and settlement services either together or distinctly for both FX and CFDs.
FNG: We’ve been reading a lot lately about FXCM’s various stock baskets. How has the uptake on those been with retail traders? How do you view them as different than, say, ETFs? Tell us more about decisions you make when offering new products on your platform for people to get access.
Brendan: The pickup of our stock baskets amongst clients has been quite strong. There isn’t much difference between ETFs and baskets other than baskets are traded over the counter. The advantage of both is that they allow you to take exposure to an industry or some segment with one trade instead of many. We saw growth in the amount of thematic investing prior to COVID, but during the pandemic that grew. Clients often had a sense of what sectors would be most affected but pandemic but they didn’t want to take the time to research individual companies. Trading the airline or biotech baskets were quick and simple ways of taking a ‘Covid’ position. The baskets make it much simpler and let traders translate their views into positions quickly and efficiently.
In deciding on what products and baskets to offer next, we start with our clients. Our mantra and now our tag line, is ‘client first, trader driven’ so we start with what clients are interested in. We also do watch the ETF markets and see what is moving. We then make sure we can create a basket that will have plenty of liquidity and tight spreads. Then we test, then we launch.
FNG: What else can we expect to hear from FXCM in the coming months?
Brendan: We always have many irons in the fire. We’ve added about 80 instruments so far this year and will continue launch many more in the months to come. The next batch we’ll release are a list of Australian shares, which we are excited about. With retail self-trading in the midst of a heyday, we’ll keep expanding our product suite to make sure FXCM offers what’s moving.
We will also keep working to provide the best trading tools available. We have integrated with great companies like Trading View, which provides amazing analytics and trading signals and ZuluTrade, which offers easy to use social trading. One tool I am particularly excited about is our integration with Capitalise.ai. Capitalise.ai allows a trader with no computer programming ability to build an automated trading strategy using simple English. This is a game changer for many traders. Clients can turn a trading strategy that they use for a couple of hours a day, to one that trades automatically around the clock. The tool is extremely intuitive. It’s easy to tinker and learn the ropes on demo accounts before turning a strategy on for live trading.
Finally, we have been looking at the overall client journey to make sure all touch points are simple and efficient. To that end, we’ve invested significantly to improve the client on-boarding process and have been working with payment partners to continue to find the best funding options. This holistic view of looking to reduce all friction points helps ensures we remain ‘Client First, Trader Driven’.