Dutch online broker sees revenues in turbos increase due to commission-free trades

Binckbank has reported the result from financial instruments, including the Binck turbos and hedge accounting results, increased by 14% to €7 million in 2018 (full year 2017: €6.2 million).

The number of transactions, at 9.9 million, was up 28% from the previous year, boosted by the effect of the offer of free trades in Binck turbos, although still below the 11 million target set in 2014.

The average net commission per transaction declined to €7.73 (2017: € 10.21) with the reduction due on the one hand to the commission-free transactions in the Binck turbo and on the other hand to the lower rates resulting from a new price plan with a range of investment propositions in the Netherlands, according to the broker.

Binckbank has more than 12,000 turbos outstanding as of February 4 2019, including 9,535 products linked to shares; 1,203 linked to indices, 926 linked to FX rates; and 360 linked to commodities. The local AEX-index is the most popular underying, seen in 364 products, followed by the EUR/USD currency pair (316 products) and the S&P 500 (254 products).

The broker introduced a number of new underlyings in 2018, often at the request of clients, including turbos long en short on a number of US company’s (Adobe Systems, Chevron, Halliburton, Home Depot, Philip Morris and YY Inc), palladium and platinum, the EUR/AUD and BE Semiconductor.

Binckbank reported a net result for 2018 of €35.5 million (2017: €8.5 million). The broker’s net result included one-off effects of €12.9 million after tax for advisory expenses related to an offer of Saxo Bank regarding a recommended all-cash public offer of €6.35 per issued and outstanding ordinary share; the sale of the share in Think ETF Asset Management in June 2018; and a one-off positive tax benefit amounting to €6.3 million on deferred tax liabilities as a result of changes in future corporate tax rates.

At the end of 2018 Binckbank had €24.4 billion of assets under administration (2017: €26 billion), a 6.15% decrease which was mainly due to the market correction that took place in the fourth quarter, according to Binck. Assets under management at the end of 2018 amounted to €0.89 billion (2017: € 1.09 billion), well below the 2014 target of €3.5 billion.

Total assets stood at €4.1 billion as of December 31 2018, up from €3.9 billion at the end of December 2017. Assets included derivatives (€24.3 million) and financial assets at fair value through profit and loss (€13.7 million). Liabilities registered at €3.7 billion (December 31 2017: €3.5 billion) while total equity, at €403.4 million, was up 2.2% from the previous year.

Binckbank was founded in 2000 and is part of the Amsterdam Smallcap Index (AScX). The brokers services – trading, investing and saving, are directed towards private individuals and independent asset managers. Binckbank has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.

Click the link to read the Binckbank yearly report  2018.