InstaForex: going global or local?

In 2008 InstaForex online brokerage company operating on Forex and CFD market took a crucial decision on internationalization. Having grabbed a significant customer base on the domestic market (Russia), the company carried out the strategic analysis. Its outcome led to internationalizing towards the emerging markets: Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Nigeria and other countries. However, pursuing such a strategy, the company faced the following dilemma – is it actually enough to provide one-size-fits-all products, or is it better to find unique solutions for each particular market? The first solution would result in wider scope and scale, and, consequenlty, bigger profit, while the second one would lead to deeper penetration in foreign markets.

The possibilities of technical progress were used to tackle the dilemma. The first implementation of the strategy was carried out while internationalizing to Islamic countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran and others. So, there was a need to open Islamic accounts. According to the rules of the Muslim religion, any business transactions, in which one of the parties receives profits at the expense of another party, are prohibited. Islamic or swap-free accounts support deals with any currency pair; and if a position is transferred through the midnight, a trader does not gain anything and there is nothing withdrawn from his/her account whatever the volume of the open position is. Islamic accounts were created especially for Muslims, because crediting swaps and interests is against their religion. On the other hand, the drastic change was not required in the domestic market. InstaForex found a very simple solution – to give their customers freedom of choice, so that each and every customer could choose between standard and Islamic accounts. Surprisingly enough, the majority of brokerage companies on Forex are very strict – they give a fixed set of tools with no choice, which does not allow them to become really global and meet the needs of particular individuals. Introduction of Islamic accounts set up a new paradigm for InstaForex: to constantly widen the spectrum of choice. InstaForex customers have every ground to say that they built the successful trading conditions themselves – not the broker, as their interests are the top priority for InstaForex Company. Thus, the customers can choose a leverage from 1:1 to 1:1000 (the biggest on the market), they can use any method of deposit and withdrawal from wire transfer to brand card (very rare and very convenient option on the market). The wide choice of currencies can meet the requirements of the most demanding trader, and last but not the least – analytics represented in different forms from articles to InstaForex own TV channel.

Nowadays, InstaForex cannot be treated as national company any longer. It is a big player on the market that managed to become local on the markets by providing specific solutions for different countries and even different personalities. As a result, the company has a customer base of almost 250 thousand traders. Among them, around 50% are loyal Muslim customers. This fact traces us back to the introduction of Islamic accounts as the first step of differentiation. If you want to trade online your own way, then InstaForex is the optimal choice!

Global Islamic Finance, January 2011
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