The LSE Directory / Retail brokers
Saxo Bank A/S is a licensed Danish bank that operates an online multi-asset trading and investment platform. Clients trade and invest through two proprietary platforms, SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTraderPRO for active traders and SaxoInvestor for longer-horizon investing, with access to more than 70,000 instruments spanning stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, forex, CFDs, futures and options. What separates Saxo from most retail CFD and forex brokers is that it operates under a full banking license obtained in 2001 rather than as a pure brokerage, and it is designated a Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) in Denmark. Alongside its direct-to-client business, Saxo runs a business-to-business arm that supplies trading technology, market access and liquidity through an OpenAPI to more than 150 partner banks and brokers and 285 financial intermediaries, a white-label model that has powered platforms for institutions including Citigroup's CitiFX Pro. The bank traces to 1992, when Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais founded it in Copenhagen as Midas Fondsmaeglerselskab; it took the Saxo Bank name in 2001 after securing its banking license, named after the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. Headquartered in Hellerup near Copenhagen, the bank reported 1.523 million clients and roughly EUR 133 billion in client assets for 2025, with staff of more than 70 nationalities across 11 countries. Ownership changed hands in 2026: Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin Group completed acquisition of a majority stake, reported at around 70 to 71 percent, on March 2 to 3, 2026, in a deal that valued Saxo at roughly EUR 1.6 billion; Kim Fournais moved from CEO to Chairman of the Board and Daniel Belfer, previously CEO of Bank J. Safra Sarasin, became Saxo's new CEO. J. Safra Sarasin subsequently moved to exercise a call option on Fournais's remaining stake, a step reported in July 2026 toward full ownership of Saxo by the J. Safra Sarasin group.
