Fullerton Markets CEO Mario Singh explains move to St Vincent & Grenadines

Transcript

In September 2018, New Zealand’s Fullerton Markets announced its move to St Vincent and the Grenadines. Mario Singh, Fullerton’s founder and CEO, explains why.

World Finance: Mario, why the move?

Mario Singh: Well Paul it’s a great question – I get that question a lot. Many people will be saying: Mario, you’re one of the forefront in leading the entire brokerage industry. Why would you move from a regulated environment to a less regulated environment? Which is essentially what St Vincent and the Grenadines is.

And here’s the real answer, Paul. The key thing is that the entire financial world is moving in lightning seconds every single day. To some extent I do find that regulation – while it has its place – has become what I would term as fairly restrictive and fairly reactive. So I wanted to take a proactive stance in how we would engage the markets.

So by moving to a little bit more relaxed jurisdiction, it allowed the business to keep our competitive edge, for us to be fairly nimble in how we move, and provide more innovative solutions for all our clients worldwide. But at the same time Paul, with our Fullerton Shield, we’re able to raise the standards of fund safety.

World Finance: I understand it also gives you a good platform to do more work in Asia – where World Finance has recognised you as Best FX Broker, 2019. Tell me about the potential in that market.

Mario Singh: Paul, absolutely immense. Asia today commands about 4.5bn in terms of population. Now that is easily 60-70 percent of the entire world population.

And Asia is slightly different in the sense that in all the countries within Asia, different people speak different languages. So I think getting the local culture right is absolutely of paramount importance. So a lot of things that we do, Paul – we tend to localise them. That’s including hiring local trainers, it includes translating all our materials. It includes even our support team that are able to type in the local language.

This is where it gets a little bit complicated, but anyone who is able to pay the price in terms of engaging local knowledge and local culture will win the game. And we are absolutely at the forefront of doing that in Asia.

World Finance: So how are you going to be approaching that challenge – what does the next five years look like in terms of your footprint in Asia?

Mario Singh: So, one of the key things I think, is really to identify in terms of how the area itself is currently growing.

People in Asia, they’re very driven. They’re very hard working, they’re very ambitious. They definitely want to get to the next level. So, trying to design innovative products that’s going to allow our clients to basically increase their financial knowledge is of paramount importance – number one.

Number two, I feel that many of them in Asia today are having high disposable income. So at the same time Paul, having personalised service in ensuring that we can cater to give them certain solutions of how they are able to park their disposable income. This two-pronged approach I think is absolutely necessary for us to win the game over the next five years.

World Finance: We’ll catch up in five years – Mario, thank you very much.

Mario Singh: Thank you Paul for having me.