amana’s New CTO Signals a Tech-First Broker Strategy

TL;DR: amana has brought in Andrey Artamonov, ex-CTO of Devexperts, as its Chief Technology Officer. The appointment reflects a broader trend of regulated brokers doubling down on proprietary tech stacks to compete on execution, data, and platform experience. Operators who treat technology as a cost center rather than a growth lever are already falling behind on acquisition and retention metrics.

Who Is Andrey Artamonov and Why This Hire Matters

Andrey Artamonov spent years as CTO at Devexperts, one of the most widely used trading platform vendors in retail forex and CFD brokerage. That firm powers trading infrastructure for dozens of regulated brokers globally, meaning Artamonov has direct, hands-on experience with the architecture challenges that most brokers outsource rather than solve. Bringing someone with that background in-house is not a routine executive appointment. It is a signal that amana intends to build or rebuild core systems rather than continue relying on third-party platform licenses.

amana is a regulated multi-asset broker with operations across the Middle East and international markets. The company has been expanding its product offering and geographic footprint. Adding a CTO with platform-vendor-level experience gives amana the internal capability to customize execution logic, data pipelines, and client-facing tools in ways that off-the-shelf platforms simply do not allow. For competitors operating on standard MT4 or MT5 deployments with minimal customization, this creates a meaningful infrastructure gap over time.

The Broker Technology Arms Race in 2026

Retail forex and CFD brokers are under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously. Regulatory requirements in the EU, UK, and Gulf region are tightening compliance overhead. Client acquisition costs are rising as paid media costs climb in financial services categories. And trader retention is harder than it was three years ago, with prop firm alternatives and crypto platforms competing for the same active-trader segment.

In this environment, brokers that can control their own technology stack have a structural advantage. They can run faster A/B tests on onboarding flows, deploy real-time risk analytics, and build proprietary tools that become switching costs for retained clients. Brokers on third-party platforms are limited by the vendor’s roadmap and support queue. That limitation shows up directly in forex client acquisition funnels: a slow KYC flow or a clunky deposit interface is not a design problem, it is a platform problem, and it costs funded accounts.

Artamonov’s background specifically in trading platform architecture means amana is not hiring a generic technology executive to manage vendors. They are hiring someone who can evaluate build-versus-buy decisions at the component level and execute on the build side. That is a different kind of investment than most brokers are willing to make.

Platform Infrastructure and Its Direct Impact on Marketing Performance

Operators who separate “technology” from “marketing” are measuring the wrong things. Platform infrastructure directly determines conversion rates at every stage of the funnel. A faster account opening flow increases deposit rate from paid traffic. A better-performing mobile app increases 30-day retention. A more reliable data pipeline means marketing teams can segment and retarget based on real trading behavior rather than proxy signals.

When a broker upgrades its core tech, the marketing team gains new tools. Behavioral triggers become available for automated re-engagement. Payment success rates improve, which directly lifts funded-account conversion from leads already in the funnel. Precision audience targeting becomes more effective when first-party data from the platform is clean and structured. These are not speculative benefits. They are the measurable downstream effects of serious infrastructure investment.

For operators running paid performance campaigns in forex, the platform experience is the landing page experience. Traffic that converts to registration but fails at deposit is a platform problem disguised as a media problem. A new CTO at the level amana just hired is positioned to fix exactly those friction points.

What This Means for Forex Operators

The amana appointment raises a concrete question for every forex and CFD operator: what is your technology roadmap, and is it keeping pace with the brokers investing at this level? Most mid-tier brokers are not in a position to hire a Devexperts-level CTO. But the competitive pressure created by those who do is real and it compounds. When a well-funded broker builds faster onboarding, better analytics, and a superior mobile experience, its cost per funded account drops relative to competitors running the same traffic on worse infrastructure.

There are practical responses available even to operators without the budget for enterprise tech hires. A structured marketing performance audit can identify which funnel stages are being hurt by platform limitations versus media quality issues. Fixing the right problem matters. Spending more on paid acquisition when the deposit flow is broken is a fast way to burn budget with no return. Deploying AI-driven lead qualification agents at the top of the funnel can also compensate for slower onboarding by warming leads before they hit friction points in the platform itself.

Operators expanding into emerging markets face an additional layer of this problem. Payment method coverage, local language support, and mobile-first design are all technology decisions that have direct revenue consequences in markets like Southeast Asia, MENA, or Latin America. amana’s geographic footprint in the Middle East makes Artamonov’s appointment particularly relevant in that context. Brokers competing in the same markets need to treat platform quality as a growth input, not an IT cost.

Leadership Hires as Market Intelligence

Senior technology appointments at regulated brokers are worth tracking as competitive intelligence. When a firm recruits from a major platform vendor’s executive team, it is usually because the existing vendor relationship has hit a ceiling. Either the platform cannot do what the broker needs, or the cost of the license relative to the value delivered has become difficult to justify at scale. Either conclusion points to a broader market signal: the era of standardized broker tech stacks as a competitive equalizer is ending.

Brokers that move first on building internal data capability, custom execution tools, or platform-layer personalization will accumulate an advantage that is difficult to close with media spend alone. The operators who recognize this and adjust their capital allocation accordingly will look different in 24 months than those who assume technology is someone else’s problem. For context, similar infrastructure investments in iGaming operator marketing and crypto platform acquisition have consistently shown that product-level differentiation reduces paid CAC over time, while undifferentiated operators face rising CPAs with no structural floor.

amana’s move is one appointment, but it reflects a directional bet that is worth watching. When a firm that size goes outside to hire a vendor-level CTO, competitors should read it as a statement of intent about where the next cycle of broker competition will be won: not in media budgets, but in platform capability and data infrastructure.

Originally reported by Finance Magnates Executives, July 2026.