In an era of deafening digital noise and scarce trust, financial marketers are rethinking their playbooks. That urgency resonated at FMAS:25 during a panel discussion titled “Now It’s Personal: Marketing for Financial Services.”
Moderated by Ziad Melhem, the Chief Marketing Officer
at CFI Financial Group, during the FMAS:25, the session brought together
marketing leaders, including Alex Stefanidis, Senior BDE Africa at HFM; Yudhvir Ranchod, Brand Marketing Director at Peach Payments; Alicja Radwanska, Chief Marketing Officer at Scichart; and Ivan Nemorin, Chief Marketing
Officer at JP Markets.
Personalization Starts with the Market, Not the
Message
Stefanidis underscored a common misperception: “Marketing should be localized to understand local client behavior, particularities of the area, linguistic nuances, all these things that make up the different regions, and what clients need in each region at the same time.”
“It should also engage with compliance at all times so that they make sure that they are compliant in each regulation and each jurisdiction in which they operate,” he explained. “When they do that, marketing teams will be
successful and will redefine themselves from being a campaign executor to
actually being agile problem solvers.”
For Peach Payments’ brand Marketing Director, Ranchod,
tailoring messaging to local realities is non-negotiable. When the company
expanded into Mauritius, they discovered that consumers there were less
comfortable shopping online than in South Africa.
“What we learned from local nuance in Mauritius was that
people still didn’t trust buying online as they as much as they did in South
Africa, and so a lot of the work we did in Mauritius was educating market
businesses and consumers about shopping online and safety, something that we
didn’t expect, but had to adapt to very quickly. And so again it’s local nuance,
right, it’s who your customers are, the right message at the right time,” he shared.
Beyond Vanity
Metrics
When asked about her opinion on attribution, which acknowledges complexity but still helps in business decisions, Radwanska cut to
the heart of marketing’s data dilemma.
“We have to be very careful how we evaluate data and also make sure that we align KPIs that we’re looking at with the business goals, and we track what the business goals really need us to track,” she asserted.
“I mean there temptation every click every open rate, and
my recommendation is in terms of attribution model is to triangulate this into
three kinds of key sorts of data, one will be your primary data so your CRM
your e-commerce your apps data second will be your third-party platform, and
the third one is the sales intel,” she added.
Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness
In a heavily regulated space like financial services,
standing out can feel like a tightrope act. “All of us as marketers are saying
the same thing, you know, fast withdrawals, tighter spreads, zero commissions. And
you know, when people see the messaging and the advertising and all the
promotions that we’re doing, for them, it’s like, but it’s already been
done,” Nemorin said.
“Why should I
get involved with this particular broker, or this particular payment method. Whatever
the case is, there you know, so it speaks to that deeper issue that you talk
about, skepticism,” he said.
“More users are more cautious, especially in this fintech space in the industry, because you know you’re dealing with their money,” he shared. “At the end of the day, you’re dealing.”
More from FMAS: “In the Last 18 Months, Brokers Have Been Moving Toward ODP Licenses,” FMAS: 25 Insights on Regulation
Ranchod echoed that sentiment. His test: if you remove
your company’s logo from a piece of content and it still works for a
competitor, “you failed.”
Compliance Is Not the Enemy
Many marketers see compliance as the final hurdle
before launch, but Nemorin suggested flipping the script. “Are you building trust
with what you’re saying? Are you being transparent in what you’re saying?”
“We have our guidelines from the regulator that says we
can’t do certain things so we don’t say those things but can it be interpreted
that we’re saying these things or making certain claims and at the end of the
day can what we’re saying be backed up by actual research by actual things,” he explained.
He emphasized that regulatory guardrails exist to
protect consumers and help firms build trust. When the panel turned to artificial intelligence, the
mood shifted—part excitement, part existential anxiety.
“What people need to understand is that AI isn’t meant to replace us; it’s meant to assist us,” Nemorin said. However, others disagreed. “The moment AI learns how to train itself and become smarter and smarter, it’s
over for humans,” Stefanidis opined. Still, panelists agreed AI cannot replicate human
judgment, creativity, or leadership.
In an era of deafening digital noise and scarce trust, financial marketers are rethinking their playbooks. That urgency resonated at FMAS:25 during a panel discussion titled “Now It’s Personal: Marketing for Financial Services.”
Moderated by Ziad Melhem, the Chief Marketing Officer
at CFI Financial Group, during the FMAS:25, the session brought together
marketing leaders, including Alex Stefanidis, Senior BDE Africa at HFM; Yudhvir Ranchod, Brand Marketing Director at Peach Payments; Alicja Radwanska, Chief Marketing Officer at Scichart; and Ivan Nemorin, Chief Marketing
Officer at JP Markets.
Personalization Starts with the Market, Not the
Message
Stefanidis underscored a common misperception: “Marketing should be localized to understand local client behavior, particularities of the area, linguistic nuances, all these things that make up the different regions, and what clients need in each region at the same time.”
“It should also engage with compliance at all times so that they make sure that they are compliant in each regulation and each jurisdiction in which they operate,” he explained. “When they do that, marketing teams will be
successful and will redefine themselves from being a campaign executor to
actually being agile problem solvers.”
For Peach Payments’ brand Marketing Director, Ranchod,
tailoring messaging to local realities is non-negotiable. When the company
expanded into Mauritius, they discovered that consumers there were less
comfortable shopping online than in South Africa.
“What we learned from local nuance in Mauritius was that
people still didn’t trust buying online as they as much as they did in South
Africa, and so a lot of the work we did in Mauritius was educating market
businesses and consumers about shopping online and safety, something that we
didn’t expect, but had to adapt to very quickly. And so again it’s local nuance,
right, it’s who your customers are, the right message at the right time,” he shared.
Beyond Vanity
Metrics
When asked about her opinion on attribution, which acknowledges complexity but still helps in business decisions, Radwanska cut to
the heart of marketing’s data dilemma.
“We have to be very careful how we evaluate data and also make sure that we align KPIs that we’re looking at with the business goals, and we track what the business goals really need us to track,” she asserted.
“I mean there temptation every click every open rate, and
my recommendation is in terms of attribution model is to triangulate this into
three kinds of key sorts of data, one will be your primary data so your CRM
your e-commerce your apps data second will be your third-party platform, and
the third one is the sales intel,” she added.
Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness
In a heavily regulated space like financial services,
standing out can feel like a tightrope act. “All of us as marketers are saying
the same thing, you know, fast withdrawals, tighter spreads, zero commissions. And
you know, when people see the messaging and the advertising and all the
promotions that we’re doing, for them, it’s like, but it’s already been
done,” Nemorin said.
“Why should I
get involved with this particular broker, or this particular payment method. Whatever
the case is, there you know, so it speaks to that deeper issue that you talk
about, skepticism,” he said.
“More users are more cautious, especially in this fintech space in the industry, because you know you’re dealing with their money,” he shared. “At the end of the day, you’re dealing.”
More from FMAS: “In the Last 18 Months, Brokers Have Been Moving Toward ODP Licenses,” FMAS: 25 Insights on Regulation
Ranchod echoed that sentiment. His test: if you remove
your company’s logo from a piece of content and it still works for a
competitor, “you failed.”
Compliance Is Not the Enemy
Many marketers see compliance as the final hurdle
before launch, but Nemorin suggested flipping the script. “Are you building trust
with what you’re saying? Are you being transparent in what you’re saying?”
“We have our guidelines from the regulator that says we
can’t do certain things so we don’t say those things but can it be interpreted
that we’re saying these things or making certain claims and at the end of the
day can what we’re saying be backed up by actual research by actual things,” he explained.
He emphasized that regulatory guardrails exist to
protect consumers and help firms build trust. When the panel turned to artificial intelligence, the
mood shifted—part excitement, part existential anxiety.
“What people need to understand is that AI isn’t meant to replace us; it’s meant to assist us,” Nemorin said. However, others disagreed. “The moment AI learns how to train itself and become smarter and smarter, it’s
over for humans,” Stefanidis opined. Still, panelists agreed AI cannot replicate human
judgment, creativity, or leadership.
