Starting a forex brokerage involves far more than choosing a trading platform. The brokers that launch smoothly make their major decisions in the right order: business model first, then regulation and banking, then technology and marketing. This checklist walks through each step.
1. Choose your business model
Before anything else, decide who you will serve and how you will earn revenue. Your answer shapes every later decision, from the licence you need to the technology you buy.
- Target clients: retail traders, professional clients, or introducing brokers and partners.
- Target markets: the countries you will accept clients from, which determines licensing and marketing rules.
- Products: forex only, or also CFDs on indices, commodities, stocks and crypto.
- Revenue model: spreads, commissions, swaps, or a mix.
2. Decide on jurisdiction and licensing
Regulation varies significantly between jurisdictions, and so do the capital requirements, timelines and marketing restrictions attached to each licence. The right choice depends on the markets you plan to serve. Take specialist legal advice early: your licence determines which clients you can accept, which products you can offer and how you can advertise.
Tip: your technology provider should be able to support the reporting, KYC and client-categorisation requirements of the licence you choose. Ask about this during demos.
3. Set up banking and payments
Corporate bank accounts and payment service providers (PSPs) are often the longest part of a brokerage launch. You will typically need several payment methods — cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and increasingly crypto — to serve clients in different regions. Plan for more than one PSP so you are not dependent on a single provider.
4. Choose your technology stack
A working brokerage needs several connected systems:
- Trading platform — a WebTrader and a mobile trading app for your clients.
- CRM — a forex CRM for sales, retention and compliance.
- Client portal — a trader's room for registration, KYC, deposits and withdrawals.
- Back office — dealing and risk tools for your operations team.
- Partner tools — an IB and affiliate portal if you plan to grow through introducers.
You can assemble these from separate vendors or license them as a single white label brokerage solution. The key question is how well the systems share data: when a client deposits in the portal, does the CRM agent see it immediately? When a lead arrives from an affiliate, is the source tracked through to the first deposit?
5. Plan liquidity and execution
Decide how client orders will be executed and where your pricing comes from. This involves your execution model, your risk appetite and your relationships with liquidity providers. Your back office should give you real-time visibility of exposure whatever model you choose.
6. Build your team
Most brokerages need, at minimum, compliance, finance, customer support, sales and retention, and a dealing or risk function. Your CRM's role and permission settings should mirror this structure so each team sees exactly what it needs.
7. Prepare marketing and launch
Plan your lead sources before launch — affiliates, paid media, SEO and partners — and make sure every source is tracked in your CRM from the first click to the first deposit. Build your website, prepare localised content for each market, and check that your marketing complies with the rules of your licence and target countries.
Next step
If you are planning a new brokerage, book a demo and we will walk you through the technology side and a realistic set-up plan.