XTB willspend more on marketing in Germany this year than at home in Poland, ChiefExecutive Omar Arnaout said. The Warsaw-listed broker is pushing into the hometurf of Trade Republic, the German neobroker that walked into Poland last year.Arnaout,speaking to Polish outlet Bankier.pl,framed the heavier German spend as brand-building in a market where XTB isstill little known. He said the amount stays well below what larger globalrivals lay out.Each Broker Pushes Intothe Other's BackyardThe contestnow runs in two directions. Trade Republic entered Poland in September 2025, its first market outside theeurozone, arriving with more than 10 million customers across 18 Europeanmarkets and about €150 billion in assets.Arnaoutsaid XTB will "spend more on marketing in Germany than in Poland"this year, building its name in the home market of the rival that is nowcompeting with it in Warsaw.[#highlighted-links#] The pushsits inside a wider goal of becoming the default investing app for Europeanretail clients, an aim that depends on markets beyond Poland.Poland Pays the Bills,Western Europe Drives the GrowthXTB doesnot break out Germany on its own. Poland is the only country it isolates in itsaccounts, at 54.4% of group revenue in 2025, while Germany sits inside aWestern Europe region that also covers France, Spain and Portugal.That regionis where the figures are moving fastest. Western Europe revenue rose 8.9% toPLN 387.4 million in 2025, active clients there climbed to about 301,000, aquarter of the retail base, and retail volume in lots jumped 74.5%. XTB's record first quarter ran largely onCentral and Eastern Europe, which delivered 71% of group revenue, leaving the western markets asthe obvious place to add scale.Themarketing tilt feeds a hard number. Arnaout wants 250,000 to 290,000 newclients a quarter in 2026, roughly a million in a year, with promotionalspending up about 50%. XTB addedmore than 860,000 clients in 2025 and ended the year above 2 million globally,but it needed more than two decades toreach its first million domestic accounts.Germany Is Crowded BeforeXTB ArrivesGermany isamong the hardest neobroker markets in Europe to break into. Trade Republic anchors it from home with bonds, ETFs andprivate equity access from as little as €1, while Munich's Scalable Capitalcharges a €2.99 monthly subscription.Both builttheir businesses on payment for order flow, a practice the EU bans from June 30, 2026, pushing German platforms to findfresh income before the cutoff.XTB's wedgeinto the market is options. The broker launched buy-only options in Germanyand Spain in April 2026, covering 110 US-listed stocks and ETFs, and Jens Chrzanowski, who runsits German branch, casts the firm as a "super app" that bundlesinvesting, savings and payments rather than a single-purpose broker.It will nothave the country to itself. CMC Markets moved into Germany's certificatesmarket in May asBaFin weighs tighter rules, and Robinhood has pushed venture funds and cryptoacross the continent. Regulatory Friction atHome Shapes the Push AbroadTheexpansion runs against a tense backdrop in Poland. KNF fined XTB PLN 20 million ($5.5million) over MiFID II breaches in its client onboarding, a penalty disclosed in April that the broker is contesting through areconsideration request. XTB saysthe questionnaire and onboarding flow at issue have already been changed.Theregulator is also widening a review of how CFDs aresold. "Thecapital market cannot function like gambling," KNF vice-chairman DariuszAdamski said, signaling it wants to stop firms moving clients from simpleproducts toward complex ones.Arnaoutrejected the idea that XTB does any such steering. He said 80% of new clientsstart with stocks and ETFs, that only 13.5% of them have ever placed a CFDtrade, and that clients who fail the knowledge test cannot buy the product atall. He also argued that Polish firms face an uneven field, noting XTB cannotoffer crypto to local clients while foreign rivals can.XTB has nowwritten options into its Polishterms of service,effective June 29, closing the gap that left its home market the last to getthe product. The broker has not said when Polish clients will actually be ableto trade it.With the domestic account engine showingsigns of cooling,Germany and the rest of Western Europe look set to carry more of the weightbehind XTB's next million clients.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.