SquaredFinancial CEO on Fintech and Investor Preferences

Cyprus-based SquaredFinancial is a global investment gateway to a full range of financial products and services. Husam Al Kurdi, CEO of SquaredFinancial, accepted our invitation and joined Fazzaco for a Q&A where he shared his insights on a wide range of topics.

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​Fazzaco: Thank you for joining Fazzaco. Would you please tell us more about SquaredFinancial?

Husam: SquaredFinancial Group is an award-winning multi-asset fintech broker that combines 17 years of experience. We offer more than 10,000 financial products and services and an easy and fast access to global markets. We help our clients achieve financial mobility and manage, grow and diversify their short and long-term investments. We are an authorized and regulated financial firm, combining financial market expertise with dedicated customer support, and offering a flexible state-of-the-art solution which works for first-time traders as well as professional investors.

Fazzaco: What differentiates SquaredFinancial Group from other brokers?

Husam: Thank you for asking this important question. Honestly, I always reflect on how we can stand out from others and what makes us unique. The team and I always ask ourselves this question, especially with the competition out there. Many of these brokers are really good; they are friends and partners. But I would say that we, in Squared, do things differently. We are using our 17 years of experience in the institutional market to provide retail clients with the same services that we have offered to top institutions. We are fintech believers, and we create and design our products to cater not only to our clients' trading needs, but to their whole trading experience. From the moment the client registers with us, to the funding of his account, then the trading, we're with him throughout the journey.

In the short term at this stage, we offer our clients more than 10,000 instruments to trade, and by the end of the year, we expect to increase our products to 25,000. Our aim is to reach 100,000 by next year. We are not bragging about this number, but we want to provide our clients with access to any instrument they might want to trade. Moreover, we are issuing virtual and physical debit cards to all our clients. We will extend our Crypto offering and our licensing, and we still have more to offer in asset management.

All our endeavours are made closely with our clients based on their feedback, on our experience and on what is needed in the market. What we want to offer our clients in 2022 is the full range of financial products and services (trading, banking, asset management, funds movement, Crypto and more) all in one secure place, SquaredFinancial Group.

Fazzaco: Fintech has been advancing rapidly. What fintech solutions have you adopted to automate your processes?

Husam: We believe in adapting to this fast-paced world where new generations are increasingly relying on tech innovations. Through the past years, we have focused on data and digital information for governance and innovation, while implementing automation where applicable to reduce error margins and optimize customer experience. We also established a payment solution that enables clients to deposit and receive funds from all over the world through trusted payment providers. More specifically, we have built an advanced ecosystem which automates pretty much everything on the backend, from the client onboarding, to trading, marketing, KYC, funding, etc. This system is modular and connects many complex systems (trading, core banking, CRM, news and more), but the user sees it as a simple dashboard. He can access more than 10,000 instruments, manage his funds, read the news, educate himself, and do so much more, all on one screen, in one app. This system is not fully live yet but is planned to be launched in December.

Fazzaco: Not every broker provides Islamic (swap-free) account. Why did you start providing it in the first place? How does it benefit you in return?

Husam: We are committed to reaching our clients wherever they are in the world and cater for their investment needs; and the Islamic community, especially the MENA region, comprises of a big share of our clients. That's why it was important for us to create the Islamic Account which answers the financial goals of our clients who cannot use swaps due to their religious beliefs.

This account helped us earn our clients' trust and loyalty; they can still achieve their financial objectives without abandoning what they believe in.

Fazzaco: Does SquaredFinancial Group have any plan to provide institutional services? Such as white label or liquidity?

Husam: Let me go back to SquaredFinancial Group prior to 2020. Since 2005, we have been specialized and focused on institutional and HNW business. It was our bread and butter, and we were good at it. We still are. 90% of our business was coming from institutional services from banks to brokers, family offices, HNW, start-ups, etc. We now offer the full solution from simple trading accounts to the most advanced White Label and customized solutions for our partners.

Fazzaco: Are there any changes to investors' preferences after the Covid outbreak?

Husam: Covid caused the markets to become more volatile than ever. People had to stay at home and had much more free time than they did pre-COVID, and they are afraid, now more than ever, of losing their jobs and source of income, which encouraged a lot of them to start looking for an alternative income stream. They got more into trading, and that's what changed the market and pushed many financial institutions to adapt, follow suit and develop, which is very good. This is when we saw the largest number of opened accounts and the flow of newcomers to trading, especially younger investors seeking rapid trading, whether it be stocks, crypto or CFDs, while retail traders affected the markets like never before. Despite all this emerging interest in trading and investment, only 0.17% of the world's population have trading accounts, but I imagine that, with time, investment and trading accounts will become a must for everyone. Just like most people now have a phone, a bank account or a Facebook account, the majority will have a trading account at a certain point.

Fazzaco: Trading software is the backbone of brokerage business. What tech solutions would significantly improve brokerage quality once adopted?

Husam: Our clients are using two of the biggest trading solutions in the industry, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. We are also planning on launching our mobile app very soon, enabling next generation traders to onboard, fund and trade on the go. We don't want to compete with other platforms. What we want is to give our clients the option to choose the platform they are comfortable with, whether it's SquaredTrader, MT5, or MT4, and maybe soon other platforms including C Trader or any other software that we see demand on.