Gold-i full of Eastern promise with new office set to open in Shanghai: Exclusive interview with CEO Tom Higgins

Mainland China is very much on the agenda for the FX industry, and Shanghai’s lure as the epicenter of modern business within the People’s Republic is in full swing.

Today, Gold-i has announced that it will open an office in Shanghai as a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise (WOFE) in March 2016.

Gold-i’s Chinese operation will be led by Max Tsen, an expert in providing technical support in the Asia Pacific region.

Mr. Tsen is currently based at Gold-i in the UK, where he is ensuring that he has a full depth of knowledge in the company’s products, service and culture.

“I am looking forward to my new role in extending Gold-i’s excellent levels of support into the China region. It’s a particularly exciting time to be joining Gold-i and a great opportunity for me to be part of an innovative, rapidly growing and highly respected organisation” – Max Tsen.

Today, FinanceFeeds spoke to Tom Higgins, CEO of Gold-i with regard to the company’s expansion into China, a land of great opportunity for participants in this industry.

China is a highly advanced nation with a young, educated and very wealthy sector of traders. How can Gold-i’s product assist the existing trading infrastructure in China, and which type of firms will benefit?

In China, our main client base will be small to medium sized firms. There are a plethora of MT4 start-ups in the region and Gold-i software will give them everything they need to get up and running quickly and also accelerate their growth.

How will Gold-i ensure that IBs, portfolio managers and end users in China are able to trade with full liquidity and no restrictions, as IP blocks are commonplace when operating overseas?

“This issue of IP blocks will not be a problem for Gold-i clients. Our software is installed locally on the brokers’ own servers and therefore there will be no disconnect between the MT4 server and our software” – Tom Higgins

Shanghai has become the Asia Pacific region’s epicenter of financial technology. What is Gold-i’s USP and where does the firm fit in among competitors in the region?

We have taken a strategic approach to establishing Gold-i in China and have worked closely with local agents to ensure we comply with all the regulations and fully understand the local business culture. We have a fantastic office, located in the heart of Shanghai, which will be up and running from March 2016. I believe the combination of our office, our global reputation for excellence and our industry leading products will enable us to attract the best local talent.

Although China’s population is highly educated, there’s still a language issue – and having Chinese nationals and native speakers in the Gold-i office is key to our success in the region.

Do you envisage the Chinese traders going for the visual display and wearable technologies in the near future? If anyone will pioneer it, surely it will be China!

Actually, I don’t think this will be the case. The Chinese take trading very seriously and I don’t think they’ll be interested in gadgets for trading. Most of their trading will be on mobile devices and, in my view, wearable technologies will not be a focus for traders. Not yet, anyway.

Do you see a potential for Gold-i in selling liquidity bridges and risk management solutions into some of the large IB businesses in China, which are vast, and have on-site trading desks managing multi-million dollar portfolios and referring business to western brokerages?

Absolutely. We have already been working with two such clients for over a year – and they are experiencing real benefits from partnering with Gold-i. We have a proven track record with such organisations and there is huge potential for us to grow with similar large organisations.

We’ve had great feedback from our current clients in China and this has given me huge confidence that there will be significant demand for Gold-i’s products and services in this key market.

How do you view fintech innovation in China, and what does Gold-i plan in terms of pushing the boundaries there?

Chinese brokers will quickly move from single source to multiple source liquidity. I have no doubt they will be amongst our first customers for the Gold-i high speed Matrix 2 aggregation system – a product we are launching in 2016 and truly pushes boundaries.

Featured image courtesy of Hidden Harmonies