The Future Of Finance

Christopher Forbes, the head of CMC Invest Singapore, shares how the platform's innovative and transparent features help its clients build long-term wealth in a volatile financial landscape

- Nafeesa Saini

It seems Christopher Forbes was destined for a career in finance. Growing up in London’s Zone 4, the head of CMC Invest Singapore was surrounded by people who worked in the city. “I was destined to follow the same path, especially with a surname like mine,” he shares.

Forbes, a keen sports enthusiast, draws parallels between himself and successful athletes. He notes that many of them hail from lower socio‑economic backgrounds and use sports as a way to better their lives, opining that “athletes from underprivileged backgrounds [tend to] do better than those from privileged ones because they [are driven] to better their lives”. He identifies with that because he, too, “came from modest beginnings”.

As a teenager, he worked in the city and caddied at a golf club where a majority of its members were involved in financial services. “I didn’t come from a huge network of wealth, so this job meant being able to buy things that, as a teenager, I regarded as important, such as new golf clubs and a nice car,” he says.

After university, he started his career on the Morgan Stanley graduate scheme and later served as the head of trading at Clermont Group, the family office of billionaire Richard Chandler, before founding Zavian Capital, a wealth management business in Singapore. In his current role as head of CMC Invest Singapore, the online and mobile trading platform under leading global online financial services business CMC Markets, Forbes plays a crucial role in steering the company through the changing landscape of financial services.