Saxo Bank reports solid FX volumes as Ukraine crisis keeping volatility high

In a volatile market driven by Russia-Ukraine headlines, FX trading volumes through Saxo Bank have surged to the highest level since April 2021.

Saxo Bank’s clients traded worth $5.6 billion daily in February, up 8 percent month-over-month compared to $5.2 billion in January 2022. Saxo’s FX ADV for last month was, however, lower year-over-year, correlating to a drop of 6.7 percent relative to $6.0 billion in February 2021.

Saxo Bank’s total monthly FX volume also reportedly soared to the highest level in almost five months, coming in at $112.7 billion in February. However, this figure corresponds to a yearly drop of 6 percent when compared to $119.8 billion a year earlier.

Furthermore, the increased volatility has given Saxo extraordinary volumes in the commodities segment. The total monthly volume hit its best reading since August 2020 at $44 billion, up 36 month-over-month from $32 billion in January. The figure was also higher by nearly 19 percent from its 2021 equivalent.

Despite the bullish performance in FX and commodities turnover, Saxo Bank’s average daily volume across all asset classes was virtually unchanged during February 2022. The Danish multi-asset brokerage reported the ADV figure at $21 billion per day relative to $20.9 billion the month prior. Moreover, the figure was higher by 40 percent from $15.1 billion a year ago.

Saxo Bank reports growth in revenue

Saxo Bank reported surging revenues for 2021 as Covid-19 remains a key trigger for customers’ trading activity, but its earnings were almost the same compared to a year earlier. Copenhagen-based broker marked mild growth in revenues, which came in at DKK 4.5 billion ($685 million), up 4 percent from DKK 4.3 billion for the same period last year.

As for the bottom-line metrics, Saxo Bank disclosed a net profit of DKK 755 million ($114 million), slightly higher from DKK 750 million in the Jan-Dec period of 2020.

Furthermore, Saxo Bank won more clients with total active accounts crossing 820,000 for the first time in the company’s 30-year history. Having onboarded more than 263,000 new accounts last year, total clients’ assets under custody grew to DKK 640 billion as of December 2021.

On the operations front, Saxo Bank  completed integration with BinckBank, which it acquired in 2019, but the last segment of the Dutch lender’s clients is yet to be migrated later this year. The transaction added more than 400,000 direct clients across four jurisdictions in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Italy.

Financefeeds.com