Leveraging payments to optimise forex user experience

The South African Rand is the 18th most traded currency globally, and foreign exchange (forex)   and Contract for Differences (CFD) trading are gaining popularity as more South Africans seek ways to trade and access foreign capital. Consequently, South Africans can choose from a number of brokers, each differing in margins, traded currencies and trading experience. Some of the most prevalent include HF Markets, IFX Brokers, Exness, Markets.com and more.

Platforms operating in this space face a few challenges: currency volatility, tight profit margins and the need to process high-volume orders quickly. Additionally, the industry is more closely monitored by regulatory bodies like the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). Due to the inherent risks and potential for fraud, the FSCA requires brokers to Financial Service Providers (FSP’s) then become ODP regulated or contract with a local ODP-compliant Liquidity Provider (like Finalto)* before they can operate in the country, ensuring a safer trading environment for all participants.

While forex and CFD trading products are somewhat commoditised, brokers and platforms can gain a competitive edge by establishing themselves as the most reliable and reputable providers in the market. High-performance payment processing, including seamless deposits and withdrawals, is key to achieving this.

How to compete on customer deposits and withdrawals

The account funding and withdrawal processes are vital to standing out against the competition. While competitive margins are attractive, the importance of the ease and speed with which your customers can access these margins should not be underestimated.

What should forex brokers and platforms look for when selecting a payment service partner?

1. Flexibility

A dynamic payment service provider should support deposits via card and pay by bank. Additionally, they should accommodate your customer’s funding behaviours. For example, a simple once-off payment process suits periodic traders, while investors who make orders regularly may prefer using recurring payments to streamline and automate the funding process.

2. Reliability + stability

Payment services must be available and operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to enable users to fund and withdraw from their accounts at any time, 365 days a year. Transaction success rates and platform stability are also critical - any wasted time attempting to make a deposit can mean missing out on a potential trade.

3. Speed

Faster payments are high in demand in South Africa. You can enhance the user experience by enabling immediate settlements (instant) on withdrawals, and making the deposit process as seamless and fast as possible, ideally one-click payments.

4. Security

This industry is known to be vulnerable to fraudulent transactions. Brokers must protect and secure every transaction to protect their users, brand and licensing approvals. A strategic payment provider can achieve this through authentication protocols embedded in the funding process to validate the user’s identity, and by ensuring the highest standards of security, fraud prevention and data protection within their offering.

5. Cost-effectiveness

In a market where protecting margins is crucial, providers must find ways to stay competitive without compromising service quality. A payment partner that offers a holistic payment and reconciliation solution reduces the cost of building an in-house solution or managing multiple banks and service providers, allowing forex platforms to drive down costs while delivering an exceptional user experience whenever a payment is initiated.

6. Social proof

It’s important that the payments solution has a track record of successfully supporting large businesses in the market and can handle high volumes of payments and withdrawals.

Enable one-click deposits and withdrawals with the Stitch payment gateway

The Stitch payment gateway is engineered for enterprise businesses at scale, with customer experience and payment optimisation in mind. We offer multiple ways for forex businesses to collect deposits – via card, pay by bank, direct debits, digital wallets as well as crypto – through one integration, and also offer recurring collections for regular users.

Crucially, our card and pay by bank solutions enable returning users to pay in one click, significantly reducing the time and effort required to make a payment. Our card solution is also one of the most reliable in the market, leveraging multiple integrations with banks and networks to ensure redundancies and fallbacks, and enabling dynamic 3DS.

Stitch can also streamline instant withdrawals through our payout solution, which is available 24/7, 365.

Build long-term, secure relationships with your users by leveraging precise payments solutions from Stitch.