The Moscow office will initially be run by the bank’s newly hired Chief Operating Officer, Igor Dombrovan, and six locally hired managers, to serve as a broker boutique, catering largely for the bank’s high-net-worth private clients in Russia, whose investment preferences and strategies typically require a closer bank-client relationship.
Typically in the past, prospective Russian and existing clients would have to travel to Copenhagen for face-to-face meetings, or private sales managers would fly to Moscow. Russian private clients tend to be highly sophisticated, and alpha seeking, according to some private bankers. They prefer to invest in FX and commodities using derivatives such as options, futures and CFDs to build complex strategies. Investing in stocks and indexes on the other hand are less popular.
Deutsche Bank, Varengold Bank, Swiss banks MIG Bank and CIM Banque, and the Latvian banks Norvik Banka and Rietumu Trading, are the main competitors to Saxo in this region. According to a report published this month by the consulting firm, Celent, Saxo is one of the largest retail FX brokers, with its monthly FX volumes matching those of Oanda, the Canadian broker.
| Monthly FX volumes |
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| Source: Celent |
Saxo Bank currently has branch offices located in Amsterdam, Athens, Dubai, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich.