Saxo Bank Reports Decline in Trading Activity and Profits

In February, Saxo Bank’s total trading volume declined by 4.2%, amounting to $359.8 billion. This marks a 14% YoY fall. However, the daily average trading volume strengthened to $18 billion, up from $17.1 billion in the previous month. Despite this, the shorter month resulted in a lower overall monthly trading volume.

Forex trading volume was $110.8 billion, down by $115.2 billion compared to the previous month. The daily average increased by over 3.8% to $5.5 billion, and demand for forex instruments remained almost unchanged YoY, with a total volume of $112.7 billion and an average daily volume of $5.6 billion in February 2022.

Saxo Bank’s equities offerings had the highest demand, with a total trading volume of $208 billion. However, this figure was 5.3% lower than the previous month and over 17% lower than the comparable month of the previous year, primarily due to the overall market trend. Although equities volume hit a record last November, it has since declined.

The monthly trading volume for commodities and fixed-income instruments in February was $32.9 billion and $8 billion, respectively. Interestingly, the trading demand for both of these asset classes increased marginally last month. Saxo Bank, headquartered in Denmark, offers trading services with equities, commodities, and fixed-income instruments.

The Profit Gap

In its annual report, Saxo Bank reported a net profit of DKK 711 million, which is a six percent decline from the previous year. The decrease in profitability was attributed to lower trading activity resulting from the macroeconomic situation, which caused clients to trade less.

In addition, the number of newly onboarded clients on the platform declined by 40% to 157,000 in 2022. Nevertheless, Saxo Bank reported record-high client numbers, with 876,000 clients at the end of the year. The Danish platform is also in the process of migrating clients from BinckBank, which it acquired in August 2019.