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Swiss forex bank Dukascopy Bank has reported that in 2015 its trading volume has reached record volume. According to the annual report, released on Wednesday, the average monthly trading volume was CHF 55 billion ($57 billion). It also reported that it has remained profitable for a third consecutive year.
Thanks to the high volatility of the market the operating income of the company posted a 29% increase on an annual basis and reached CHF 35 million. The authors of the report note that 2014, when the operating income was CHF 27.1 million, had extraordinarily weak volatility, so the spectacular increase was partly caused by this condition. Nevertheless, even compared to a more ordinary level of annual income (CHF 30 million), 2015 would have appeared 17% higher.
In 2015 the net profit of Dukascopy Bank was CHF 3.4 million – a significant increase from 2014’s CHF 1 million. In 2015, the company was rather economical and put aside CHF 2.8 million as “Reserves for general banking risks” for a rainy day. If the sum were added to the net profit, it would have reached about CHF 5.5 million.
In the meantime, the operating expenses in 2015 were CHF 25.6 million. Thanks to cost containment measures implemented in 2014, they remained stable and were 1% less than in 2014. The cost/income ratio in 2015 was also favorable at 73.3%. In comparison, in the preceding year it was 95.4%.
The total assets of Dukascopy Bank were CHF 184.1 million, posting a 3.5% increase from 2014. The total client deposits in 2015 also rose somewhat and reached CHF 144.5 million, up 0.8% from the preceding year. This, according to the authors of the report was mostly due to the drop of the EUR/CHF rate (-10% over 2015 which concerns 31% of clients deposits) and to client trading losses.
According to the report, in 2015 Dukascopy Europe remained profitable for third consecutive year. At the same time Dukascopy Japan, which has joined the Group in August 2015, has stopped its commercial activities and has generated operating expenses, but no income. For this reason the consolidated net profit of the Group was CHF 0.6 million below Dukascopy Bank’s net profit. It is expected that Dukascopy Japan, which restarted operations in October 2015, would break even by 2017.
Dukascopy Bank, set up in 2004, is based in Switzerland’s Geneva and operated globally through offices in Zurich, Riga, Kiev, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. It is licensed as a bank and as a securities dealer by Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The company owns 100% in brokerage Dukascopy Europe IBS , e-payments provider Dukascopy Payments, both based in Latvia, as well as Japanese broker Dukascopy Japan K.K., formerly Alpari Japan K.K.
Since the beginning of the year Dukascopy Bank has expanded its trading portfolio and has extended the binary options expiration to 24 hours.