Upholding ESG Principles: How TFB Leads by Example

Author: Meriam Cherif

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance principles. These principles define how the company operates, creating a more sustainable future for all of its stakeholders and the industry in general. These principles are crucial for Tools for Brokers, and in today’s article, we will share how we follow them to create a better future.

Environmental Impact Assessment

At Tools For Brokers, we take into consideration the environmental impact of our software development process and infrastructure by tracking the following:

• Energy consumption
• Resource usage
• Carbon emissions

We monitor these factors associated with hosting and running our products and optimise our code for better efficiency.

• Our applications for the MetaTrader platforms, including the multiplatform Trade Processor liquidity bridge, are engineered to operate seamlessly without necessitating server restarts. Plus, these apps can be installed on any server, not necessarily the same MetaTrader one, which will reduce the server load, inherently reducing energy consumption.
  
• A selection of TFB solutions (the bridge, PAMM, and TFB Toolbox) can be hosted on a cloud server that supports better resource sharing than physical servers. It allows for dynamic resource allocation based on demand, whereas a physical server infrastructure requires dedicated space, cooling systems, and power supply, contributing to a higher energy consumption and environmental footprint.
  
• Technical support performs periodic maintenance and optimisation for our Main Label and White Label clients to improve server allocation and performance.
• Our developers are constantly working on optimising code efficiency and infrastructure, such as in our liquidity bridge’s API Database, in order to handle a large volume of transactions. This capability is essential for managing large requests and meeting the demands of modern financial markets. This also helps improve the speed and reliability of data retrieval, while also reducing the computational resources required. By streamlining our API database, we've minimised server load, resulting in lower energy consumption and a smaller carbon footprint.
• For our PAMM, the accumulation of transactions in the MT5 backup database can slow down processing times as the MT5 worker checks for new transactions. To address this, we have implemented an optimisation that significantly reduces the processing power needed for each transaction.
• Similarly, for our TFB Toolbox, we have improved the efficiency of our Swaps Free, leading to less overloading and speed delays on the client’s server by checking which account has open positions and then only applying the settings of the app to these accounts. This way, the overload will be reduced significantly.

Social Responsibility Integration

In terms of social responsibility integration, we do the following:

• Our software solution promotes inclusivity and accessibility, and we’ve added a number of languages to our product interface – 11 Languages in TFB PAMM and 2 Languages in the Trade Processor bridge.
  
• A selection of robust security measures protects user data and privacy, demonstrating our commitment to safeguarding sensitive information. For the liquidity bridge, we’ve added an allowed IPs list to access the bridge, which our clients can configure easily via the interface.
  
• We offer educational resources and 24/7 support to help clients understand our products, adapt them to their unique needs, and make informed decisions. Our Client Success Team speaks multiple languages and is based across different time zones. They provide training sessions at all times, ensuring a successful journey for our clients.
  
• We have organised volunteering and sports-related events, such as marathons and football matches, for our Cyprus and UK Teams. We have also organised sustainability-focused events, including cycling in various picturesque locations, which promotes a zero-emission mode of transportation. Additionally, some team members volunteer at animal shelters, animal adoption centres and events.

Governance and Compliance

We adhere to industry best practices and regulatory standards governing financial software development. 

• Our software solutions comply with relevant regulations, such as data protection laws, including GDPR. We also make sure not to disclose personal data about investors and money managers in our PAMM reports.
  
• We’ve implemented custom reports for our clients in the liquidity bridge, such as transaction reports, execution reports, and open position reports, which offer more transparency to our clients.
  
• We partner with reliable companies to ensure our clients have full reporting support for regulatory One such partner is MAP FinTech, which is integrated with our Trade Processor bridge to provide a range of reports.
  
• To establish transparent governance structures within our company, the management holds strategy sessions every year, which include all the office heads, PMs, and department heads. The results and decisions of these sessions are shared in a meeting with all our employees.