Founded in 2005, Arab Financial Brokers (AFB) provides online brokerage and trading services, alongside micro trading services through its AFB and AFB Multi Terminal online trading platforms. Its clients can be found in 52 countries – they vary from individual speculators to asset managers, white labels and introductory brokers. And as a mark of the company's progress, were awarded Best Arabic Online Platform and Support (2009, 2010) at the Middle East Forex Trading Awards.
A closed shareholding corporation registered under Kuwaiti commercial law, AFB was created to address the increasing number of currency and futures trading demands in the Middle East (and in the Gulf Region in particular) and to cater for clients investing heavily in the futures and spot forex markets.
According to General Manager Abdullah Abbas, AFB's management team identified the opportunity for a regional trading platform that would develop a niche market geared for individual forex traders and speculators.
“At Arab Financial Brokers, our goal is to provide the best online brokerage services for investors by offering competitive conditions and high quality services while building a long term relationship with our clients,” says Mr Abbas. “Our management team created a new generation of brokerage firms that resolved customers' needs for speed, accuracy and accountability in order to pursue forex pricing and trading.
“At the same time, we leveraged relationships with strategic alliances and experienced forex professionals, and employed a team of experts to serve our customers in the Middle East, Gulf Region and countries worldwide.
“Our founding principles are aimed at initiating the best technological infrastructure and utilising the most advanced forex trading software, while at the same time delivering the best possible client services,” he says.
AFB provides an online trading platform for individuals, introducing brokers and financial institutions that want to speculate on the exchange rate between two currencies.
In doing so, traders buy and sell currencies with the hope of making a profit when the value of the currencies changes in their favour, whether from market news or events that take place in the world.
The forex market is the largest market in the world with daily volume of over $1.7trn making it one of the most exciting markets for trading.
“The main advantage of the forex market is that it is a true 24-hour market,” explains Mr Abbas. “No matter what time it is, there are always buyers and sellers somewhere in the world actively trading forex, which means that investors can respond to breaking news immediately.”
Forex Islamic and swap free accounts
Aiming to meet the needs of Muslim forex traders, and in strict compliance with Islamic Shariah Law, AFB offers swap-free Islamic accounts to traders, for whom interest and swaps contravene their religious beliefs. They also give their owners an opportunity to hold their positions for an unlimited amount of time.
“We are like no other world traders,” says Mr Abbas. “We respond to our Arab and Islamic clients' needs and in compliance with the Islamic Shariah, we have the opportunity to run our own forex accounts, referred to as Forex Islamic Accounts.
Low trading rate of $50
Alongside offering this vital service for their Muslim clients, AFB provides individual investors with access to all major capital market sectors. It focuses on providing retail clients with professional tools to profit from multiple markets, not just forex.
AFB provides its customers with the chance to start trading at a rate as low as $50, through its Micro Account service.
“Our Micro Account is a great opportunity for traders from all over the world to trade smaller transactions online under real market conditions and there is a minimum investment of only $50 to open an account,” says Mr Abbas. “Traders can deposit and withdraw funds easily and quickly when it is convenient for them via our website, making it more straightforward than ever to get started.”
For the more serious investor, a fast, reliable and secure online trading platform is also available in the form of AFB Trader. This platform enables clients to trade all major forex, energy, metal, soft commodity, equity and indices right from their desktop.
“Our advanced online trading platform, AFB Trader, provides a unique trading experience delivering fast, reliable and secure trades in an easy to use interface,” says Mr Abbas. “It gives our clients access to real-time tradable prices and the power to trade global markets from one integrated account 24 hours a day.”
Traders are also able to get full access to their account and all the services provided by AFB, at anytime from anywhere, through AFB's mobile service.
“Our AFB Wap technology allows anyone with a mobile phone to check the current market quotes around the clock and get access to real time prices worldwide,” says Mr Abbas.
Individual investors
The key to AFB's popularity with independent affiliates is its ability to deliver reliable, competitive currency pricing and quality in its products and services, says Mr Abbas. “Traders who use AFB achieve maximum security and reliability to get the information needed for instant results,” he says. “Our systems utilise a fast order execution and trading structure supported by multiple redundant server clusters, internet connections and backup power systems.”
As a leader in foreign currency trading, Arab Financial Brokers is also able to offer smaller transactional sizes and allow traders of almost any size, including individual speculators or companies, the opportunity to trade the same rates and price movements as the large players who once dominated the forex market.
But what makes AFB so successful? The advantages of dealing with his firm, according to Mr Abbas, are clear.
“Our strength and stability is structured and based on the foundations of the Kuwaiti trading regulatory authority laws and our activities, trading and services policy is built and committed to maintain security and protection for our client's investments,” he says.
“Aside from our swap-free accounts, we offer added benefits which include 24 hour trading online and via the telephone, instant fills, free news and research resources, a low minimum investment, multilingual support… We also provide real-time streaming quotes, charts, account information and management, a fully secured platform and full product range, varying from foreign exchange to future contracts, and instant online support is available through our experienced and knowledgeable staff members.”
Good customer service is especially vital, he says: “We have clients in 52 different countries, including some in Europe and the USA, however our main customers come from the Middle East, North Africa and the Far East such as India and Pakistan, so in turn we provide 24 hour customer support in a wide range of languages; English, Arabic, Indonesian, Indian, Mauritian, Urdu and Turkish.”
Key to Europe
All of these services have made AFB one of the world's leading forex brokers, but it also has plans to expand further over the coming months.
Following on from its success in attaining the Cyprus Investment Firm registration license [CIF] from the CySEC in 2010, AFB has set its sights on London.
“The license from Cyprus was the first ever CIF license to be issued to a firm from the State of Kuwait,” says Mr Abbas. “[It] will help us spread our means and attract more clients, mainly from Europe, Russia and the USA.”
So the future looks bright for AFB; with a registration license from Cyprus obtained, one from London on the horizon and its wide range of unique client services, AFB are sure to keep providing one of the best online brokerage services for investors in the Middle East and around the world.
