CMC Markets Appoints New Head Of Asia And Strengthens APAC Team

CMC Markets has started 2025 with the news of several new appointments at its Singapore office, although majority of the decisions were made last year.

The brokerage company has moved Christopher Forbes to the role of Head of Asia, bringing together the job across three brands: CMC Invest, CMC Markets, and CMC Connect (its institutional branch).

Forbes, who took on the role on 1 September 2024, was earlier in charge of the CMC Invest brand in Singapore.

Annie Lai Joined As Sales Trader In October 2024, Bringing 10 Years Of Experience

Lord Peter Cruddas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CMC Markets noted that Christopher’s past work shows how good he is at growing businesses while keeping the focus on customers. Cruddas added that his leadership in Singapore has been a key moment for CMC, and the firm is thrilled to see him bring the same ideas and energy to the wider Asia area.

Along with Forbes, CMC has also promoted Daphne Tan to Business Development Director and Melissa Lwee-Ramsay to Head of Marketing for Asia. Lwee-Ramsay has been with CMC since mid-2022, and Tan joined the company in February 2019.

Besides the promotions, CMC has appointed Lee Jia Yi as its Head of Distribution. She joined the Singapore office from Axi, where she worked for seven years, with her recent role being the Head of Sales for the Asia-Pacific region. This is her second time at CMC, having worked with the company for around three years in a sales job before.

CMC has also hired Annie Lai as a Sales Trader in its Singapore office. Per the information on her LinkedIn, she joined the company last October and brings almost ten years of experience from firms like LMAX Group, Aquariux Fintech, and FXCM.

Another important hire is Ravinder Kaur, who was appointed as the Institutional Business Development Manager of CMC Singapore in February last year. She had earlier worked with Haitong International Securities, Blackwell Global, IG Singapore, and HSBC.

CMC Partnered With ASB Bank In New Zealand In November 2024

In November last year, CMC Markets announced that it has teamed up with ASB Bank, a top financial company in in New Zealand with about 1.5 million customers. This partnership will help the broker strengthen its presence in the country. CMC will provide ASB with its white-label technology.

The collaboration between CMC and ASB is set to start with a setup phase, which might take 12 to 18 months. The two firms expect most of the costs for this time to be capitalized, though they think there will be some extra costs as the business grows.

As soon as the white-label setup is finished, ASB customers will be able to access more than 15 international markets, get detailed market research, and use tax reporting tools.

Jonathan Oram, ASB’s Executive General Manager of Corporate Banking noted that the firm want to speed up progress for every New Zealanders. He added that by allocating funds into this alliance with CMC, the company will improve its services for ASB customers who want to trade stocks and other listed securities.