Today, Saxo Capital Markets UK Limited, the UK subsidiary of Saxo Bank A/S, announces the decision to withdraw from the UK CFD and FX Association, a margin trading industry group. The decision follows thorough consideration of consumer protection, including the recent proposals in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consultation Paper (16/40).
The Saxo Bank group strongly supports the FCA’s proposals in respect of providing access to margin products for retail clients through placing responsible caps on levels of leverage offered, enhanced transparency and ensuring that the products and leverage offered are appropriate for the individual client.
Kim Fournais, Saxo Bank CEO and founder, said:
“We have decided to no longer be a member of the UK CFD and FX Association because the association was not sufficiently reflecting our views and interests. Trading CFDs and FX instruments brings a number of advantages to retail investors that have previously been the preserve of larger financial institutions. However, trading these instruments also carries risks that should not be neglected and warrant high industry standards and firm and fair regulation.“
“For the Saxo Bank group it is important that our interests are aligned with our clients’ interests. When our clients succeed, we succeed and to support that, we offer responsible levels of leverage, risk education and relevant information to clients. The Saxo Bank group supports efforts from regulators to set higher standards in the industry and the underlying aim of ensuring better protection of clients and better alignment between the interests of clients and their facilitators.“
“The Saxo Bank group takes a prudent approach to leverage and welcomes the proposals from the FCA to set responsible boundaries on leverage that are in fact roughly in line with the maximum leverage used by our active trading clients today. Trading with excessive leverage leads to a significant risk of frequent stop-outs which leads to client losses. We have no interest in offering clients too high leverage just to see clients being stopped out.”
The decision also follows Saxo Bank’s signing of the FX Global Code last week and Saxo Bank’s decision to voluntarily publish Enhanced Disclosure to promote increased transparency in the industry.
