Best Invest to Cease Operations by December 31, 2024
In a notice published on the Financial Market Council's website, Best Invest, a brokerage firm, has informed its clients that it has decided to cease its activities as of December 31, 2024, following information from the regulator. Clients are invited to present themselves at the company's headquarters to provide instructions regarding the fate of their accounts (cash and securities) held on the company's books, and this must be done no later than December 25, 2024.
This is another brokerage firm leaving the market, either due to cessation of activity or merger with another entity. The market is highly concentrated among the five main players, which, thanks to their rich IPO history, excellent reputation, and large portfolio sizes, can attract a significant number of retail clients. Their strength lies in collective management, which generates significant management fees, unlike Best Invest. The economic model of brokers is based on high trading volumes and market dynamics. These two factors are not always present, especially since there is a lot of caution among investors.
The brokerage industry is the first to experience a kind of consolidation movement, with a rationalization of the number of players compared to the market size. This is rare in the Tunisian financial sphere, and it's a step in the right direction. The long period of high interest rates has proven that collective management, essentially bond-based UCITS, must be the cornerstone of the revenue generation model for any intermediary who wants to ensure the sustainability of their business.
