A Missed Window in Britain
Omar Arnaout, chief executive of XTB, conceded on Thursday that the Polish brokerage had likely missed the optimal window for entering the United Kingdom. Speaking on a third-quarter earnings call, Arnaout described the British market as one where competing against entrenched local platforms would demand enormous capital investment, and he signalled the company would proceed with considerable caution.
The scale gap is stark. XTB's UK division more than doubled its 2025 revenue to £8.64 million (approximately $11.6 million), yet Trading 212 recorded £277.6 million in the same country over the same period. By Finance Magnates' own calculation, that places XTB's British revenue at roughly three percent of its rival's. Arnaout summarised the situation bluntly: "I think we were simply a bit late to this market."
The broker has been building out its UK product set since late 2024, launching a zero-commission stocks-and-shares ISA in December of that year and adding a cash ISA earlier this year. Quarterly filings show 11,767 combined ISA and cash-ISA accounts in place by the end of September, up from 10,717 three months prior. That gain of roughly 1,050 new tax-advantaged accounts stands in sharp contrast to the 152,000 customers AJ Bell added over the twelve months to September, underscoring how crowded and competitive the British savings-and-investing space has become.
Arnaout had flagged the UK as a "test year" back in January, and the results suggest the experiment is still in its early, capital-intensive phase. For retail traders eyeing a new platform in Britain, the takeaway is that XTB has the product infrastructure but faces a steep climb against incumbents that have spent years building brand loyalty and marketing muscle.
Indonesia Emerges as the Growth Engine
If the UK story is one of a late start, Indonesia is the mirror image: a market that has surged ahead of expectations. Arnaout told the earnings call that, to the best of his recollection, only Poland now signs up more new accounts each month than Indonesia. The company does not break down account numbers by country in its public filings, but the trajectory is unmistakable.
XTB's entry into the archipelago began in January 2024, when it acquired a 90% stake in local broker Eagle Capital Futures. The initial offering was limited to US equities and exchange-traded funds, with contracts for difference (CFDs) approval arriving only this summer. Earlier in the year, Arnaout noted that Indonesia had produced XTB's fastest first 1,000-account milestone, though deposits remained modest and brand recognition was virtually absent.
By August, the Indonesian unit reported that funded accounts had jumped 741.51% in the first half of the year compared with the second half of 2025. The product range has also broadened rapidly: CFDs on gold, silver, palladium, crude oil, and natural gas launched in August, followed by options in the third quarter, according to XTB's quarterly report. Arnaout said on Thursday that the broker had intensified its CFD marketing push that week and expected to gauge demand within four to five weeks.
The country is also featured in XTB's latest advertising campaign starring Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tyson Fury, which went live on October 1. In March, Arnaout had told Finance Magnates that Indonesia, then described as a "question-mark" market, had roughly six months to prove its commercial viability. By all available indicators, it has.
Budget Shifts Toward Germany and France
With next year's spending plans already taking shape, Arnaout outlined a significant marketing budget increase for Germany, citing the need to press Trade Republic and Scalable Capital for share. In June he had already stated that XTB's German marketing outlay for the current year would exceed what the company spends in its home market of Poland. Germany has grown into one of the broker's most revenue-critical territories, although XTB does not disclose country-level figures separately.
In France, Arnaout projected that XTB should land among the three or four most popular investing applications by year's end, even though revenue in the country has yet to catch up with the pace of sign-ups. The pattern across both markets points to a strategy of front-loading user acquisition and letting monetisation follow.
Both the UK and Indonesia were explicitly designated as 2026 test markets. The contrast between their trajectories—one struggling to find product-market fit against entrenched rivals, the other outgrowing its initial scope within a year—gives traders a useful lens on how XTB is allocating its competitive resources.
A Crowded Archipelago and a Profitable Quarter
XTB is far from alone in Indonesia's regulated futures and derivatives market. Plus500 acquired Global Intra Berjangka, a local broker that had ceased accepting new clients, a deal Finance Magnates reported in December. AIMS, meanwhile, opened a Jakarta office in May under a licence from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti). The regulated customer base these foreign entrants are contesting runs into the tens of thousands, and the competitive intensity is set to rise.
The earnings backdrop for all this expansion is strong. XTB reported on Wednesday that third-quarter profit quadrupled to PLN 213.7 million, equivalent to roughly $54.4 million. That result provides the financial cushion for the marketing spend Arnaout is committing across Germany, France, Indonesia, and, more cautiously, the United Kingdom.
For traders choosing between platforms, the broader picture is one of intensifying competition. Whether the battleground is Britain's ISA market, Germany's direct-indexing space, or Indonesia's fast-growing derivatives sector, the message from XTB's leadership is consistent: the company is willing to invest heavily, but it will pace its entry according to local competitive dynamics rather than a single global playbook.