Saxo Bank

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Saxo Bank A/S

Type	Private
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Copenhagen, Denmark
Key people	Henrik Thufason, Chairman Florian Wendelstadt, Vice-Chairman Kim Fournais, Chief Executive Officer Lars Seier Christensen, Chief Executive Officer num_employees = 850+ (2006)
Industry	Finance
Products	Investment Banking
Revenue	$636 Million Danish Kroner (2005)
Net income	$158 Million Danish Kroner (2005)
Slogan	Serious Trading. Worldwide.
Website	www.saxobank.com

Saxo Bank is a specialized Danish investment bank founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The bank was awarded full European bank status in 2001.

The Bank is privately held with its co-founders, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, holding majority stakes. Private Equity firm General Atlantic bought a minority stake in June 2005 and invested USD127 Million. The bank expanded its physical presence overseas for the first time in 2006 with branches opening in London, UK and Singapore.

Saxo Bank facilitates global capital markets trading and investing through its online trading platform. It offers a broad suite of investment banking products including Forex, Stocks, CFDs, Futures, Funds and Bonds. Private Wealth Management services are also offered to high net worth individuals and families. Roughly two-thirds of the Bank's activities are derived from partnerships with licensed financial intermediaries including banks, brokerage firms, FCMs and institutional trading partners.

[edit] Quick facts

Saxo Bank is named after Saxo Grammaticus, a famous Danish warrior/theologian and alleged to be the first historian of the Danish people.

In 2006, the bank expanded with offices in Spain, London and Singapore.

[edit] Businesses

Saxo Bank's businesses can be broadly categorized into 3 areas: Private Clients, Institutional & White Label Partnership and Private Wealth Management.

Private Client services focus on enabling individuals to trade the different financial instruments online.

Institutional services include institutional trading services, introducing brokers and White Label Partnerships (WLP). The White Label Partnership business accounts for more than half of the bank's revenue providing an efficient, scalable re-distribution of the bank's core competencies to a broader public. The business reaches thousands of end-users through 80+ WLP relationships in 40+ countries.

In a White Label Relationship, the trading platform and back office risk management and client account management systems are branded in the identity of the partner. The partner must be a licensed financial institution able to hold client funds, and appropriately regulated for securities, currency and derivatives trading in its local jurisdiction. Saxo Bank provides the technology and a suite of value-added business development, planning and strategic services while the white label partner provides on-the-ground distribution, sales, marketing and client servicing.

Private Wealth Management is a relatively new growth segment for the bank.