From 10 to 12 February 2026, Dubai hosted iFX EXPO Dubai 2026 — one of the key events for the FX, CFD, and online trading industry. The panels focused on what firms need to rebuild to scale, handle higher volatility, and meet tighter rules without hurting the client experience.

The Drofa Comms team — CEO Valentina Drofa and Senior Account Manager Maria Tunikova — attended the event and captured the main developments on broker tech, AI, cross-border payments, and stablecoins.

Below are our key takeaways and what they signify for where the industry is heading next.

Broker Tech in 2026: Reliability, Execution, and Risk Control

One of the strongest themes across iFX EXPO panels was that platform performance is now a business risk. When markets move fast, brokers lose clients when execution fails, pricing drifts, or risk controls react too late. That is why “reliability” sat at the centre of many 2026 roadmaps — it is the layer that decides whether growth stays stable or turns fragile.

Practically, reliability means four key things:

• Predictable behaviour under stress, even when volumes spike;

• Stable execution and pricing, with risk rules applied in real time;

• Infrastructure that can scale fast without slowing down;

• A simpler core stack, so incidents are easier to isolate and fix.

This changes where brokers invest and what they measure. In this environment, stability becomes a revenue driver because it protects conversion and retention during peak moments, such as major news releases and sharp moves.

Moreover, panellists said the broker stack is getting harder to manage as firms add more platforms and more vendor integrations. This means one issue — for example, in a pricing bridge, CRM sync, KYC flow, or a payment route — can spoil the client journey end to end. It also slows releases, because every update must be tested and aligned across several platforms and vendors before it goes live.

In 2026, reliability is commercial. Brokers that treat execution engines, risk logic, and core architecture as product assets are in a better position to scale with fewer shocks.

AI in Broker Operations

AI is moving to full-scale production across financial services. NVIDIA’s 2026 financial services AI survey found that 65% of respondents say their company is actively using AI, and 61% are using or assessing generative AI. 

Yet even with AI now “everywhere,” and iFX EXPO was no exception, on stage, the key question was “where can AI remove day-to-day load from teams without creating new compliance risks or breaking the client journey?”

Panellists described AI as an efficient, embedded system inside the brokerage. One use case was lead scoring and routing, as AI can do it automatically, faster and with almost the same efficiency. That ensures consistency across many procedures.

Another strong theme was AI systems monitoring and supervision. Recorded calls can be analysed by AI to flag issues, summarise key moments, and reduce manual review for sales leaders and compliance teams. So, brokers can catch risky behaviour earlier, document what happened, and reduce compliance gaps without hiring more reviewers.

Despite its usefulness, one warning kept coming up: adoption is harder than implementation. Building AI features is one step, while getting teams to trust the output, change their routines, and actually use the insights is much harder.

Cross-Border Payments and Stablecoins: Faster Rails, Harder Compliance

Cross-border payments came up as a growth constraint across the expo. Participants highlighted that clients expect instant, low-friction funding, but the infrastructure still lags.

And one of the key reasons is cost. The World Bank puts the global average fee for cross-border transfers at 6.49% (Q1 2025). That means friction is still built into the rails, and brokers pay for it through lower deposit conversion and higher support load.

Stablecoins came up as the “second rail” that many teams are now testing to reduce that friction. Speakers exchanged views on stablecoins more as a settlement tool: fast, trackable, and available outside bank hours. Yet the regulatory burden is rising. The EU’s MiCA framework is now in force, and it brings tighter rules for stablecoin issuers and crypto-asset service providers on licensing, governance, reserves, and disclosures.

In practice, that means stablecoins are growing as an alternative to traditional rails for cross-border transfers, even though they are also coming under tighter scrutiny. So brokers should rely less on a single route, and more on seeking alternatives, where a multi-rail model could be a solution.

What’s Next?

What iFX EXPO Dubai 2026 made indisputable is that the industry is moving from “growth by acquisition” to “growth by infrastructure.” Brokers can still win clients with strong marketing and a smooth front end, but they will keep them only if the core system works well under stress.

If it doesn’t, the failure is immediate and expensive. Execution slips, pricing breaks, withdrawals slow down, support queues spike, and trust erodes faster than any campaign can rebuild.

So, the main conclusion the Drofa Comms team brought back from the event is that brokers are entering a “proof of performance” year. Every promise is now judged by whether the system controls risk, works well, and moves money reliably at scale.