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CFI Financial, a leading online trading and investment provider, operating across the GCC region, is committed to delivering a world-class trading experience to its global client base.
Its mission is to empower traders and investors with the most advanced, personalized, and accessible solutions – setting new standards through innovation, technology and support. In today’s highly competitive payments landscape, checkout performance is critical to sustaining growth.
Challenge: Boosting performance of Forex payments
CFI’s mission to empower traders and investors depends on reliable, high-performing payments. However, in the Forex trading industry, where speed and reliability directly impact customer trust, the company faced significant challenges with its other payment providers.
Low acceptance rates prevented traders from funding accounts reliably. Cross-border payments were another major pain point, with inconsistent performance making it harder to support traders reliably across markets.
To address these challenges, CFI sought a payments partner that could:
- Improve acceptance rates and stabilize performance across GCC markets
- Simplify cross-border flows with reliable uptime and availability
- Enable advanced funding and payout capabilities for greater flexibility
- Enhance the trader experience with faster, simplified checkout flows
Solution: A payments stack fit for Forex trading
Checkout.com partnered with CFI to design a payments stack tailored to the unique demands of trading, built with performance at its core.
Simplified repeat funding with Remember Me
Flow’s Remember Me feature allows returning traders to securely save card details, cutting out unnecessary steps at checkout and providing the speed expected in a trading environment.
Secure, compliant hosted payment page with Flow
CFI integrated through a hosted payment page powered by Flow, customized to meet strict compliance and security requirements while supporting multiple payment methods.
Faster account top-ups with Account Funding Transactions (AFTs)
AFTs gave traders the ability to fund their accounts directly from their cards – faster, more securely, and at lower costs than traditional methods. For a trading platform, this capability is essential to keep customers active and reduce chargeback exposure.
Instant disbursements with Payouts
By adopting Checkout.com’s Payouts, CFI delivered reliable, real-time disbursements to traders, supporting both funding flexibility and customer confidence.
Results: Acceptance rates and speed driving business growth
By focusing on performance in the GCC, CFI and Checkout.com have built a payments foundation that supports the company’s mission to empower traders with faster, more reliable experiences.
- High acceptance rates: CFI achieved 94% acceptance in the UAE and over 92.7% across the GCC, up from 83% in September 2024.
- Faster checkout times: Returning users now complete payments in just 8 seconds with Flow Remember Me, compared to 1 minute 11 seconds for non-Remember Me users, an 88% reduction, saving over a minute per transaction.
- Faster deposits: By enabling AFTs for forex, CFI provides traders with faster account top-ups than traditional bank transfers.
- Increased trust with digital wallets: The integration of Apple Pay and Google Pay has improved both speed and customer confidence at checkout.
These gains have reduced drop-offs and made funding accounts easier for traders. Customers now experience smoother, faster payments, while higher acceptance rates have enabled CFI to reinvest in lead acquisition and expansion into new markets.
“Checkout.com has transformed the way we manage payments across our business. Their technology and expertise have significantly improved our acceptance rates and the speed of our deposits, which is critical in Forex trading. With their support, we’ve been able to deliver a smoother, faster experience for our customers and expand confidently into new markets,” said Karim Malas, Chief Operating Officer at CFI Financial.
Looking ahead: Expansion and growth
With a strong payments foundation in place, CFI continues to scale globally. Expansion into Bahrain is complete, with further growth across additional regions underway. For CFI, performance and growth go hand-in-hand. And with Checkout.com, payments will continue to power both.
By 2026, CFI plans to add Issuing to its stack, further strengthening its ability to deliver for traders worldwide.
