LeapRate Exclusive… The new, stricter rules governing FX and CFD brokers issued by Cyprus financial regulator CySEC late last year do not seem to be deterring a new generation of brokers from setting up shop in the island nation.
LeapRate has learned that CySEC has issued a new CIF license to a Lebanon based investor group led by Walid Abousleiman.
Walid Abousleiman
Walid Abousleiman is a Lebanese entrepreneur and philanthropist, who in 2008 founded Beirut based Retail FX broker Aksys Capital. Aksys is licensed by the Central Bank of Lebanon. Mr. Abousleiman was also recently appointed as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Uganda in Lebanon.
The investor group has set up a new company called Aspide Financial Limited, which technically holds the license, although the company will operate under the trade name ProbusFX. The license was granted back on June 23, and the probusfx.com website just went live earlier this week.
Youssef Barakat, ProbusFX
To run ProbusFX, Mr. Abousleiman hired another Lebanese national, Youssef Barakat, as CEO. Mr. Barakat has spent the past eight years at Dublin, Ireland based institutional FX broker and liquidity provider Squared Financial, including acting as CEO of Squared for the past three years. Mr. Barakat was named CEO of Squared Financial when the company’s founder, Phillippe Ghanem, moved over to become CEO of Abu Dhabi based ADS Securities.
Given the company founders’ backgrounds as well as personal strengths and connections, we expect ProbusFX to focus mainly on the Arabic speaking FX trading market, which continues to grow.
ProbusFX will offer trading on both the MT4 and MT5 platforms.
Other managerial talent brought in by ProbusFX include personnel from a variety of other Retail FX brokers including:
Thomas Papantoniou, COO – formerly Head of Sales at FXTM, and COO of  Arabic focused FX broker TadawulFX.
Yasmine Kenny, Head of Compliance – formerly in compliance with CySEC licensed brokers Safecap (Markets.com) and Banc de Binary.
Dora Christofi, CMO – formerly Marketing Manager at AAATrade.
Michael Kopanakis, Head Of Brokerage Department – formerly in senior operations and dealing roles at various brokers including Vista Brokers, TFI Markets, and YesFX.
Loucas Louca, CFO – formerly Deputy Financial Controller of eToro.
Evdoxia Teliopoulou, Head of Back Office – formerly in operations at FxPro.