Saxo Bank sees Singapore as only one of its goals, and the company believes its arms are long enough to reach out to the entire South-East Asian region using either computer or mobile phone.
Saxo Bank is a fully-registered and European Union-licensed bank, with clients in more than 115 countries, primarily in Europe, West Asia and the US.
The Danish bank is well known for its advanced technology systems, as Saxo Bank carries out most of its trading activities through its online system, the SaxoTrader.
A third of its 355 employees are currently working under its information technology department.
The Singapore subsidiary is named Saxo Capital Markets Ltd and is set to open by the second half of 2006. But Saxo is not only trying to find Singaporean customers as its goal is to reach Malaysians too. To do this Saxo will use WebTrader, its online foreign exchange (forex) trading system.
“Our primary target group in a market like Malaysia (and South-East Asia generally) is business professionals and retail forex traders,” vice-chief executive Eric Michelsen says.
In order to trade, users will need an Internet connection to access Saxo WebTrader’s site and open an account with a minimum of US$2,000 (US$1 = RM3.71) and US$25,000 in maximum.
Saxo Bank will offer customer services in several Asian languages as well as a support team available 24 hours a day, Michelsen added.
The bank’s Internet portal, saxobank.com, has 700,000 members, of which some 60,000 use the site every day.
