Maintaining a Strong Momentum: Interview with Plus500CY CEO Ofir Chudin

Congratulations on your company’s win at the 9th Annual Invest Cyprus International Investment Awards. What does this award mean to you?

For Plus500, receiving a Cyprus International Investment Award is a great honour. We are extremely proud of this award, which constitutes recognition of the hard work of our employees, our exceptional performance, the positive impact we have had on Cyprus since our establishment and our preeminent status in the financial services industry. It also gives existing and potential customers confidence in the quality of our product and services.

 

Fast-developing technology has brought trading to the masses but Plus500 also offers services to professional traders. Why is this important to the firm?

The experience and requirements of our customers are fundamental priorities for us, so we have always aimed to apply a customer-centric approach. Our cutting-edge technology is continually being developed and updated, ensuring that our products and services to our customers are innovative, fully featured, accessible and intuitive.

Furthermore, our technology has also been developed to fully cater for the more experienced traders, who must fulfil the strict criteria to qualify as elective professional traders and tend to use our services over a long period of time.

 

How is Plus500 different from its competitors?

Our market-leading proprietary technology is our major differentiator, helping our customers to capitalise on emerging trading opportunities and enabling them to have the same experience across a range of devices and operating systems.

We are continuously improving and innovating our technology to provide a simple, user-friendly trading environment, including various embedded functionalities such as market analysis and risk management tools. Communication is also important for our customers, so our multilingual Customer Support services run on a seamless 24/7 basis.

We offer more than 2,500 CFD instruments and we are continually introducing new instruments to our technology platform for our customers, to ensure that their experience is always fully optimised. In addition, to provide further product choice for our customers, we recently launched ‘Plus500 Invest’, a share dealing platform in Europe, facilitating trading in popular shares, indices and ETFs listed on exchanges worldwide.

As a FTSE250 group, with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange, we always aim to be in full compliance with regulatory requirements and listing rules, helping to drive a robust risk management and compliance culture across our business. This culture enables us to implement regulatory updates, as and when required, to ensure the best interests of our customers and our business.

 

Although the pandemic is still ongoing, people are returning to both their workplaces and outdoor activities. Do you think this switch away from screen time, which was previously dedicated to online trading, will impact the number of individual users in the long-term?

Plus500’s performance over the last 18 months has been strong, building on our momentum and our growth track record, which was achieved before the pandemic.

We expect to deliver a continuing strong performance going forward, supported by our market-leading brand and our high-quality product, which will drive customer activity and engagement in the future. In addition, our technology enables customers to access our product across devices and operating systems, ensuring that they have the ability to always invest on the go.

 

What are the main reasons why Plus500 has chosen to invest in Cyprus?

Cyprus has a strong business culture, infrastructure and employment market and we are proud to be operating in this market, in which local business service providers, accountancy and legal firms are of a high standard. As an EU and eurozone member, Cyprus offers a reliable and transparent legal system, a stable political system and access to European markets. Together, these factors place Cyprus firmly on the European and global financial map. Through its financial regulator, CySEC, the island has established a well-regulated industry, which further enhances the reputation of its Financial Services landscape, reassures investors using its services, and renders Cyprus a unique business platform and investment destination.

 

What lies ahead for Plus500?

Our vision is to continue evolving as a leading global multi-asset fintech group. With this in mind, we are continually striving to expand our global reach and to diversify our product portfolio, while continuing to develop our offering for our customers. 2021 has been a landmark year in our progress towards becoming a global multi-asset fintech group, with our recent entry into the futures and options on futures market in the US and the launch of the ‘Plus500 Invest’ share dealing platform in Europe. In line with our customer-centric approach, we will continue to improve and upgrade our trading platform, our marketing technology and our customer service. We will also continue to adapt to regulatory and market developments, whilst maintaining our strong compliance culture and track record. We are very positive about the future and will continue to seek growth through ongoing investment in our business, our technology and acquisitions to expand our CFD offering, introduce a portfolio of new financial products and deepen our relationship with customers.

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