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Bechwaty advances within ICM MENA
ICM MENA promoted Firas Bechwaty to head of business development on 2 November 2026. He moves up from the manager position in that team. Bechwaty joined ICM in July 2022 as a business development executive and took on the manager role in August 2024, the company said.
The UAE licence limits the remit
ICM MENA, ICM.com's UAE operation, holds a Category 5 licence from the UAE Capital Market Authority (CMA). The permission covers product marketing and client introductions. Category 1, by contrast, allows a broker to deal for clients itself and carries a higher paid-up capital requirement.
Gulf roles and permissions have shifted
ICM.com promoted Joanne Tayara to director of its Dubai representative office in March 2021, following five years as operations manager. The CMA permission was reported in March 2025, when the regulator was still called the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA).
ICM.com had decided about a year earlier to surrender its UK licence; its UK entity, ICM Capital Limited, now appears on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) register as no longer authorised. Wassim Anastasiou, after about a decade at ICM.com and reaching director of operations, left for the MENA regional director role at Traze in November 2025.
Bechwaty brings account experience
His LinkedIn profile records an earlier five-year account management stint with One Global Market Limited. At ICM MENA he handled its largest client accounts, focusing on retention and developing more business with existing clients. He said the experience showed how established client relationships could create further opportunities. The company cited his native Arabic and professional English as assets for its regional expansion. Founder and Chairman Shoaib Abedi said the promotion recognised Bechwaty's work and achievements. Finance Magnates reported the appointment.
| Figure | Context |
|---|---|
| 142 of 333 | Active entities on the CMA register with Category 5, as counted on 2 November 2026 |
| AED 500,000 | Paid-up capital required for Category 5 |
| Around AED 30 million | Paid-up capital required for Category 1 |
| 12 registers | Covered by FM Intelligence's licence monitoring tool |
| More than 150,000 records | Tracked by the tool |
What this means on the desk
The licence category defines the regulated activity at the UAE unit: marketing products and introducing clients, rather than dealing for clients itself. Operations teams should establish where the introduction workflow ends and which entity handles any subsequent client activity. The story does not specify how ICM.com divides those responsibilities across its systems.
Teams reviewing the change can check whether client records, account ownership and hand-offs between business development and other functions reflect Bechwaty's new remit. The source does not identify any systems migration, reporting change or cost impact, so those details remain questions for the firm rather than established consequences of the promotion.
