iFX EXPO as an Industry Sentiment Test
The biggest financial B2B Expo in the world, iFX EXPO, is so much more than a networking event. It gathers the world’s largest and most prominent online trading and FinTech companies, effectively making it a barometer of the industry. The UF AWARDS Global 2025’s award ceremony takes place during the expo, and X Open Hub was extremely proud to be named ‘Best B2B Liquidity Provider’ at the UF AWARDS GLOBAL 2025. X Open Hub also seized the opportunity to have a booth at the event and, in the process, gained a more synoptic image of the industry. These are some of the team’s observations.
Top 3 Broker Pain Points
While speaking with institutional brokers at iFX EXPO, X Open Hub uncovered three critical pain points that define the CFD liquidity and trading technology landscape heading into 2025. Digital marketing is a vast and constantly evolving field, but the focus until recently was very narrow: all efforts drove lead acquisition. The goal of directing as many leads as possible into your funnel remains relevant, but it is no longer enough.
ROI on Lead Volume
Volume alone isn’t cutting it in 2025. There are two primary reasons for this: one is that consumers are spoiled for choice, and the second is that new clients are less likely to trade large sums of money.
In addition to the first pain point, brokers are making it increasingly easy to switch: with streamlined onboarding, automated account verification, and a multitude of both local and non-fiat funding options. Some even incentivise clients to jump brands with incentives, bonuses, and free trades.
The second factor negatively impacting acquisition ROI is that newly registered traders, compared to long-term clients, are less likely to commit larger trades. According to X Open Hub’s specialists, even experienced traders and investors typically open smaller trades to test a broker’s fees, services and credibility. In the meantime, if they are offered a bigger bonus, they’ll likely switch. This increases client turnover and also means that the period needed to recover your initial investment in acquisition is greatly extended.
These are the reasons why everyone is seeing a seismic shift in the industry, with an emphasis on intensive retention efforts in parallel to lead generation. Although a seemingly expensive process, you can control costs by working with FinTech companies like X Open Hub, which offer ready-made solutions that can be quickly deployed and customised to match your branding.
Regulatory Pressure
Another concern X Open Hub heard was the rising cost of navigating an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. A cost that is compounded by the multiple licences many brokers are obligated to hold to offer their services worldwide. Among the most time-consuming of compliance-related costs are Know Your Client (KYC) processes. KYC verification is a requirement by most credible regulators, enabling banks and brokers to offer services within their respective jurisdictions.
This is also a “multi-pronged” point of friction. Receiving, organising and forwarding clients’ information required for KYC can require numerous labour hours. Additionally, developing and maintaining the necessary infrastructure to ensure the required level of security for your clients’ sensitive data can also come with a substantial price tag. Finally, if the process is delayed or the client is not informed, this could cause a client who has been practically onboarded to drop out.
Segmentation Troubles
In recent years, certain regulators have also obligated brokers to categorise clients as retail or institutional/professional traders. The regulations stipulate that retail traders have different conditions, like limits on maximum leverage, for example, to protect them against excessive losses. Institutional and professional traders can trade without any limitations, taking on full responsibility for their market exposure.
Modern, credible FinTech companies are aware of these regulatory needs. Some offer brokers ways to automate both the “appropriateness” evaluation (necessary to be considered a professional trader) and KYC operations, streamlining client segmentation for institutional brokers and limiting the administrative costs involved.
Two Key Surprises
While at the iFX EXPO, speaking with everyone, X Open Hub came across two items that affect brokers. One, they want to limit both upfront and ongoing development costs while still maintaining control. The second is real-time data and data transparency.
More Brokers Want Control Over Tech
Although in-house development gives you ultimate control and final word on your tech, it comes with one big, profit-eating caveat: maintenance. Unlike the single deployment cost, upkeep is ongoing and often costly. An event could cause platform instability, and the labour hours needed to have someone on call to prevent these types of episodes can be significant. Additionally, companies need to periodically check security and stress-test their technology, which is another hidden cost.
Working with a FinTech provider can significantly reduce your development and ongoing maintenance costs. All while maintaining absolute control over both the user-facing and back-end interfaces. A potentially unexpected benefit of using an off-the-shelf solution, if you remain within the same ecosystem, is seamless integration and cross-communication.
Demand for Transparency Is Rising
Everyone lives in a “now” world, and that holds true for data as well. Brokers should have immediate access to insights regarding their liquidity, routing, and performance. This provides them with an additional layer of control. Enabling brokers to respond promptly to changes and pivot as necessary.
Insights Equal Action
The extraordinary value of any insight lies in how it’s acted on. This unique opportunity has shown us how the liquidity and tech provider can help its clients take their enterprises to the next level and scale up their operations. Drawing on insights from everyone the X Open Hub team spoke to at the iFX EXPO has helped us develop a roadmap for the future and a blueprint for what they need to build. Better reporting, flexible integrations, and tools that dynamically respond to segmentation are all on our to-do list, so stay tuned.
Whitepaper Coming Soon
There’s only so much a single article can include, so X Open Hub experts are preparing an extensive and detailed white paper covering all the insights they gathered during the iFX EXPO. If you’d like a digital copy, please let them know by clicking here.
