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Saxo Properties and Resolution Property Form a €250 Million Joint Venture

Saxo Properties, the property investment arm of Saxo Bank, the Copenhagen-based trading and investment specialist, has entered into a joint venture with Resolution Real Estate Advisers LLP “Resolution Property”, the pan European real estate fund, whose investors include some of the major US universities such as Harvard and Yale and foundations, currently has €1.5 billion of assets under management.

The Joint Venture will focus on co-investing up to approximately €250 million in the central business district of Copenhagen, targeting residential and mixed use, residential and commercial buildings which will benefit from the application of intensive asset management, including refurbishment and the repositioning of occupiers. With an in-house team of 15 highly skilled property professionals and a facilities management arm, Saxo Properties is well positioned to identify off market opportunities, and implement an asset management programme of improvements resulting in significantly enhanced returns for investors.

The new venture, which is already targeting its first purchases, will have a life of three to five years with the emphasis on income growth and capital gains.

Jesper Damborg, Chief Executive of Saxo Properties said: “We are delighted to have teamed up with Resolution Property, one of the leading pan European real estate investors, with assets across Continental Europe. The Joint Venture will seek to take advantage of carefully selected opportunities which have the potential to produce above average returns in the medium term.”

Robert Laurence, Chief Executive of Resolution Property said: “The stability of the underlying economy in Copenhagen, coupled with the opportunity to acquire good quality assets at levels representing a significant discount to their peak values, is of great appeal to us. Our Joint Venture with Saxo Properties provides a highly experienced property team at local level with an established track record of achieving good returns and an exciting opportunity for us to develop our value add real estate strategy in a new market place.”

Saxo Properties is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saxo Bank and was launched in March 2010 to provide closed end funds for both high net worth clients and institutional investors, focusing on residential, office and retail property in Central Copenhagen.

Originally founded in 1998, Resolution Property, backed by a shareholder base including international private equity investors, pension funds and major US universities and foundations, is invested across continental Europe including France, Poland, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland. With a €808 million capital raising completed in 2007, Resolution Property is targeting a portfolio size over €2.6 billion.

de Morgan & Company of London, acted on behalf of Saxo Properties in the negotiations and Resolution Property was represented by Whitmarsh Holt Young along with local advisers including Plesner and Sadolin & Albæk.

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Business Monitor International Releases the Latest Analysis of Japan’s Post-Crisis Economy

Business Monitor International (BMI) has released its latest special report, “Japan After The Quake: Resurgence Or Another Lost Decade?” examining the state of Japan’s economy and exploring the risks and potential areas of outperformance across six industries covering retail, agribusiness, IT, automotives, commercial banking and power.

The report outlines BMI’s views on Japan’s recovery and the future prospects of the Japanese economy, focusing on the longer-term implications of the disaster.

While it has been encouraging how quickly the economic downturn has stabilised, Japanese consumers are unlikely to start spending again soon. BMI expects that the Japanese consumer to place a greater emphasis on price over quality. The reconstruction efforts will divert capital resources away from other sectors of the economy, and a slowdown in China will impact the export sector.

Further, the March earthquake and tsunami has had a major impact on Japan’s ICT and retail industries, with the ICT sector struggling especially to resume full operations on the back of supply chain disruptions and power shortages. Faced with a precarious domestic outlook, ICT firms will, instead, turn to growing emerging market demand to boost their revenues, a strategy that is also being pursued by the Japan autos sector with varying success.

That said, other sectors are better poised to capitalise on the “back-to-basics” spending of consumers with major convenience store retailers outperforming in this challenging environment. While March’s retail sales growth fell to its worst level since 1998, retail sales in recent months have bounced back, underlining a recovering demand outlook for Japanese retailers.

More broadly, the longer-term economic outlook remains fraught with risk, with Japan staring at another lost decade of economic stagnation. Indeed, BMI predicts that consensus expectations for Japan’s GDP growth of 2.9% in 2012 are too optimistic.

BMI’s portfolio of products provides comprehensive analysis across Japan’s industries and enables global investors, strategists and decision-makers across the corporate spectrum to assess and evaluate how far Japan has come since the crisis in terms of economic stabilisation and industry consolidation.

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Business Monitor International Predicts Slower Growth In The Angola Construction Industry

Business Monitor International (BMI) forecasts an annual average growth of 8.3% y-o-y between 2011 and 2015 in the construction sector, which will be slightly reduced from the previous high rate.

Angola has experienced a post-civil war reconstruction boom, aided by the spending of oil revenues and large credit lines. The infrastructure sector benefited from the rapid pace of growth in the construction industry. Although sky-high property prices and vast oil wealth have seen the Angolan capital Luanda dubbed the “new Dubai”, new data for Angola’s construction industry illustrates downside risks that expect to slow the future growth of the infrastructure market.

The Angola Infrastructure Report provides an overview of all the major areas of the infrastructure sector including building materials, transport infrastructure, construction industry and utilities. It also features BMI’s market assessment and 5-year forecasts to end-2015 covering public procurement and spending on all major infrastructure and construction projects, including transportation and logistics by land, sea and air; power plants and utilities, and commercial construction and property development.

BMI previously highlighted the pertinent threats posed by political risk across a number of African nations. The violent unrest and political instability seen in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire has underlined the importance of policy continuity for investment into the Africa infrastructure markets.

BMI’s portfolio of products and services provides comprehensive analysis of the global infrastructure industry and enables industry professionals, strategists, sector analysts and investors to evaluate and manage the risks arising in the infrastructure markets.

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Saxo Bank Acquires 25% Stake In Broker Solutions Provider Leverate

Saxo Bank and Leverate announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership in which Saxo Bank has acquired 25% of Leverate. The broker solutions provider offers a full turn-key solution for brokerage companies looking to offer trading capabilities based on the online automated trading application MetaTrader or to complement their existing trading solutions.

Through this acquisition, Saxo Bank and Leverate will continue to enhance their offerings towards institutional segments and retail brokers by adding new trading functionalities. Leverate’s complete solution provides brokers with the services needed to increase their conversions, trading volume and risk management capabilities by offering products integrated to the MT4 and other proprietary platforms. Since its release in 2005, MetaTrader has established itself as one of the most popular non-proprietary Forextrading platforms. Offering advanced functionality, the system is regarded as one of the preferred auto-dealing systems on the market and it is widely used by FX traders.

Stig Pastwa, Chief Commercial Officer of Saxo Bank, commented on the acquisition: “We have seen an increased demand among our institutional and retail clients for automated trading solutions, including MetaTrader. Leverate’s track record and ability to deliver a comprehensive and reliable trading environment has made them an obvious choice as a provider of technology supporting the MT4 universe, which lives up to Saxo Bank’s award winning standard of execution. As an extension to our important business for white-label and institutional clients, we wish to support Leverate with technology and liquidity. While keeping their independence, we hope to assist Leverate in their already impressive growth from which their customers will further benefit.”

In a joint statement, the co-CEOs of Leverate, Ran Strauss and Doron Cohen commented: “Leverate had been approached on multiple occasions by other private equity funds eager to enter into a business relationship, but when we met Saxo Bank, we felt we had encountered the perfect partner. Leverate will continue to provide innovative and comprehensive proprietary solutions for the FX market, and we are proud to be working together with Saxo Bank. Time and time again, Saxo Bank has been recognised as a leading force in the FX industry, and together we plan to continue Leverate’s R&D efforts in the area of technology solutions and related services for brokers and financial institutions. This mutually beneficial partnership will allow our clients to benefit from enhanced top-tier liquidity sources, while Saxo Bank’s clients can have access to our Complete Broker Solution: MT4, Live Feed, Web & Mobile Traders, CRM and Risk Management, powered by Leverate, and fully integrated with Saxo Bank’s core liquidity and execution engine. This partnership will in no way change the management or operations of Leverate and our clients can only benefit from it.”

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Saxo Bank Launches FX Binary Touch Options

Saxo Bank, the specialist in online trading and investment, today announced the launch of six Binary Touch Options on its trading platform. The Binary Touch options will initially be offered in six currency pairs; EURUSD, USDJPY, GBPUSD, EURJPY, EURGBP, and AUDUSD. They will be tradable from Saxo Bank’s award winning FX Options Board, where clients are already able to trade regular FX Vanilla Options.

The launch will further extend Saxo Bank’s FX offering and allow clients to trade in the world’s most liquid financial market in a simple and convenient way. A Binary Touch Option differs from a plain Vanilla Option in that the potential gains and losses of a Binary Touch Option position is known upfront, thus greatly simplifying the transaction. Clients may invest not only in which direction the price will move, but at the same time express their views on how far and over what time period.

Unlike other trading platforms that offer similar products, Saxo Bank will offer its clients the ability to close-out their long or short positions at the current market price prior to expiry.

Gustave Rieunier, Global Head of FX Options & Forward Trading at Saxo Bank, said: “Adding Binary Touch Options trading to our platform bridges the gap between FX Spot and FX Vanilla Options and meets the recent demand in the market for wanting to trade in the global currency market in a simple, straight forward manner. Whether you are a seasoned FX trader or new to investing in currencies, this is an excellent way to add FX exposure to your portfolio.

“Saxo Bank has developed into one of the top market makers in the global FX Options space. Adding such a simple and straight forward product to our strong liquidity and award winning pricing capabilities is another significant improvement to our FX offering.”

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Saxo Bank Wins Best Liquidity Distribution Service at the eFX Awards 2011

Saxo Bank, the specialist in online trading and investment, has won the “Best Liquidity Distribution Service” award at the annual eFX Awards 2011 hosted by FX Week in New York.

At the core of Saxo Bank’s offering is its White Label solution for banks that require a market leading on-line trading platform for their clients. The key benefits of the solution are:

– It facilitates ownership and control of banks’ relationships with their clients whilst maintaining full client anonymity from Saxo Bank.
– Access to a fully branded and customised trading solution.
– A facility for banks to distribute their own FX liquidity to their clients via the white-label platform.
– A multi-asset offering with more than 20,000 financial products, including FX, Stocks,CFDs and commodities.
– Flexibility and control allows banks to distribute liquidity from the asset classes with tailored commission pricing to their own clients, based on their own local and regional requirements.

For institutional clients, such as hedge funds and retail aggregators with sophisticated high trading volumes, Saxo Bank’s trading API compliments their needs by making its multi-asset product range available in the client’s own systems via a low latency VPN, standard FIX protocol API. The trading API extends Saxo Bank’s distribution services and makes available its range of FX crosses and order routing for CFDs, Stocks and Futures in the client’s proprietary systems.

The founders and co-CEOs of Saxo Bank, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christens said in a joint statement: “Saxo Bank acts as a facilitator linking liquidity from Tier-1-banks and access to over 20 exchanges across the globe to our institutional and retail clients via our integrated platforms. The award acknowledges this business model. It makes us very proud and we are honored to accept the award.”

Saxo Bank was also nominated for the “Best Retail Platform” award. The award was won by Citi. The CitiFX Pro platform is powered by Saxo Bank.

This year the awards were judged by industry experts, Joel Clark, Editor, FX Week, Justyn Trenner, Chief Executive, Client Knowledge, Sang Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Aite Group and Rob Daly, Editor, Sell-Side Technology.

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Saxo Bank Launches New TradingFloor.com

Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, has announced the re-launch of TradingFloor.com, its trading commentary, news and analysis web site. It represents the first upgrade since the site was originally launched mid-2009.

The new site still provides a wealth of information about financial markets to help users make informed decisions when investing. Specifically it covers forex, equities, commodities and macroeconomic data, but it now also reflects the overall goal of building a closer rapport with users to allow for greater engagement and more interaction.

“The new release signifies Saxo Bank’s ongoing commitment to improving the site’s value to clients, prospects and the Bank,” said Hugh Taggart, the head of Saxo Bank’s Content & Strategy Team. “The upgrade also represents the start of an ambitious roadmap to include closer integration with social media channels.”

Some of the improvements include:
– User accounts, a unique user log-in function allowing users to create their own customised dashboards, set and save their interests (including following individual blogs and authors and linking their Twitter accounts) and comment on and ‘like’ content
– Refreshing new branding and overall design
– More analysis from a wider range of sources, including qualified guest contributors
-Educational content on forex, forex options and (CFDs) from Saxo Bank and its trading staff
– Improved content RSS/Atom feed capabilities

The new TradingFloor.com still contains an economic calendar, stock screener and basic free forex charting package.

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Business Monitor International Release Latest Report On The Greek Infrastructure

Business Monitor International has announced the release of its newest report, which examines the state of the industry infrastructure in Greece.

This is currently a turbulent time for Greece’s economy, as there have been protests about tax rises, job losses and a number of strikes at power plants. The impact of fluctuations in the infrastructure market is likely to be felt in Greece’s construction industry which is currently struggling to cope with reduced demand for its services.

Business Monitor International’s report covers all the major areas of the infrastructure sector including transportation, energy and utilities; analysis of the latest industry trends and prospects; and competitive intelligence on leading construction companies. It also features BMI’s market assessment and 5-year forecasts to end-2015 covering public procurement and spending on all major infrastructure and construction projects, including transportation and logistics by land, sea and air; power plants and utilities, and commercial construction and property development. The report also analyses the impact of regulatory changes and the macroeconomic outlook and features competitive intelligence on multinational and national contractors and suppliers.

BMI’s previous outlook for the Greek energy and utilities market predicted that the market was in decline and would continue to decline. The Greek parliament is due to vote on the government’s latest round of spending cuts and tax rises. Spending cuts are likely to hit the infrastructure industry hard as the industry is reliant on growth and investment which is likely to be reduced as part of the proposed spending cuts.

The Infrastructure report enables industry professionals, strategists, sector analysts, investors, trade associations and regulatory bodies to evaluate and better manage the risks, and exploit business opportunities, in global infrastructure markets. BMI’s analysis of the situation and forecasts for the future offer insight for those looking to manage risks or considering investment.

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Business Monitor International Releases Report On Russian Food And Drink Market

Business Monitor International has released its latest report examining the state of the food and drink market in Russia.

BMI provides reports covering various sectors and geographic locations, and key food and beverage trends. This report is its latest signification product release for Q3 2011.

The BMI reports on food industry trends are designed to enable manufacturers and suppliers, grocery retailers, consultants, policy makers and regulatory organisations to identify international growth opportunities, evaluate risks and opportunities in global food, drink and retail markets.

According to this latest report, Russian food prices which have seen some easing in recent months, may be about to start rising as the recent ban on grain exports, which was put in place to keep domestic food prices down following droughts, gets lifted.

The report concentrates on industry-specific regulatory environment and highlights recent issues with fruit and vegetable imports from the EU, which have also provided a temporary boost for the Russian domestic fruit and vegetables industry.

The Russia Food and Drink Report also analyses the implications of the latest industry and macroeconomic developments like the effect of the import ban imposed by the Russian government following the E.coli outbreak in Germany which resulted in 38 deaths and affected thousands of people. Russia’s food safety watchdog is currently analysing the issue to determine what additional measures it should take to guarantee the safety of products imported to Russia from the EU.

As the key to ensuring effective business management is to be able to manage risk and exploit the available business opportunities, BMI believes that the information in this report will prove to be an invaluable aid to a wide range of global industry professionals working in the Russian food and drink market.

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Rugged Ways Climbs New Heights With Web Site Launch

Bangor – Rugged Ways, an outdoor clothing and equipment retailer, is working with SecureTrading, a top payment gateway services provider and the UK’s leading independent payment processor, to manage its global payments processing through its new web site.

Rugged Ways new site was designed and built by Ascensor, who work closely with SecureTrading for the payment processing, based on the company’s reputation of excellent customer service and a secure payment platform.

Sam Spence, Director at Rugged Ways, said, “We wanted a website to support our Skipton store in North Yorkshire. It was important that we found not only a company who understood what we wanted from a web site but that our payments system was robust and could properly support trading at all times.”

Tim Allitt, Head of Sales & Marketing, SecureTrading, said, “We’re delighted to be able to support the payments of a business like Rugged Ways which is venturing online for the first time. It’s crucial that when a business moves its products online that it is confident that its customers payments will be processed quickly and without issue so they receive a great experience regardless of the channel they choose to shop via.”

Ascensor built a filter system for Rugged Ways so that its customers can search for products via colours, sizes etc. Andrew Firth, Director, Ascensor, said, “It took us approximately four months to get the website operational. It needed to be built from scratch and we have worked hard on the search engine optimisation strategy. This is a big step for Rugged Ways and we’re delighted to be helping them on their journey.”

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Saxo Bank Launches SaxoTrader 2.5 with Improved Navigation and Position Management

Saxo Bank, the specialist in online trading and investment, has announced the launch of SaxoTrader 2.5, the latest update to its multi-asset class trading platform. The new version includes improved navigation and added features to manage positions and orders, and is available to customers from July 2011.

Saxo Bank has replaced the old SaxoTrader menu with an intuitive, easily navigable ribbon-style toolbar. The menu items are now grouped by function which takes up less screen space whilst making the breadth of functions available more accessible and simple to use. “News and Research” as well as “Account” tabs enable users to easily access all the information they need. In addition, new product icons clearly differentiate the various products tradable on the platform.

Enhanced position management features include a module allowing users to view and manage positions and related orders in one integrated workflow. This enables to flexibly close positions, set stop and limit orders, and provides users with a customisable display of all open and closed positions. A heatmap visualisation gives them an additional instant overview of the performance of their positions.

Henrik Dyrholm Holst, Head of Platform Management at Saxo Bank, commented:
“SaxoTrader 2.5 is designed to make trading even faster and more efficient. Nowadays, traders demand intuitive tools that are rich in data and analytics. SaxoTrader is a multi-asset trading platform with a specific set of tools for each asset class. We have therefore focused on making the trading experience for all types of traders as positive and intuitive as possible, and clearly guide users through the broad range of features on the platform.”

This latest release is a subset of the functionality Saxo Bank will be adding to SaxoTrader. The Bank will continue to upgrade the platform in phases this year.

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Saxo Bank Wins Two Awards At The World Finance Foreign Exchange Awards 2011

Saxo Bank, the specialist in online trading and investment, has been named “Best Forex Broker in Northern Europe” and “Best White Label Solution Provider” in the World Finance Foreign Exchange Awards 2011. This accolade acknowledges Saxo Bank’s position as an established FX house and its leading role in the foreign exchange market.

Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, founders and co-CEOs of Saxo Bank, said in a joint statement: “We are delighted that Saxo Bank has won these two awards. Modern traders and investors demand usability, mobility, performance, and service when executing online trades, all of which we will continue to provide our clients with.”

Saxo Bank, which is renowned for aggregating liquidity from the world’s leading FX dealers, facilitates Forex trading on three different online platforms, covering the needs of those who are new to the Forex markets as well as professional investors who demand a wide selection of trading instruments and a variety of product types for multi-asset portfolio creation.

Saxo Bank’s many years of experience in the online trading business and accumulated knowledge of the markets as well as the needs of clients translates into a proven success formula for completely scalable White Label solutions. The solution is built around a customised version of Saxo Bank’s award-winning platform and then branded under the White Label Client’s name.

The World Finance Awards are chosen by an expert panel. They identify industry leaders, individuals, teams and organisations that represent the benchmark of achievement and best practice in the financial and business world. Now in their fourth year, the awards reflect a wider spectrum of financial services and related industries than ever before.

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Saxo Bank’s ForexTrading.com adds new product offerings

Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, has announced the addition of 12 CFDs on major stock indices and 7 commodity CFDs to its ForexTrading.com platform for private traders.

ForexTrading.com was launched by Saxo Bank in early June 2011 and provides traders with browser based and downloadable trading platforms, supporting a range of the world’s most liquid forex, and CFD instruments at competitive spreads.

Claus Nielsen, head of markets at Saxo Bank, said: “The addition of stock index CFDsand seven further commodity CFDs to ForexTrading.com now enables private investors to trade in the most liquid contracts across a range of asset classes. The majority of clients use ForexTrading.com as a no thrills account to trade currencies, however we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to leverage the opportunities they see in other asset classes.”

“We expect dedicated index and commodity traders to enjoy the tight spreads for the CFD indices. The indices are priced competitively with the UK 100 and Germany 30 indices spread going as low as 1 point and the US SPX500 as tight as 0.75 points.”

The minimum initial deposit when opening an account with ForexTrading.com is $2,000 or equivalent, and no interest will be paid on funds on deposit. ForexTrading.com supports retail trading accounts and offers support and service in English.

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Russell Investments launches new online information suite

Russell Investments has launched a new dedicated website specifically for retail financial advisers.

The new online portal, available direct from the Russell Investments UK homepage, brings together the most relevant investment information from Russell’s extensive range of detailed and unbiased industry analysis and allows financial advisers to cut through the noise to hone in on the topics which are important to them.

Alongside this, advisers will be able to quickly navigate through Russell’s tools and investment services which can help them get under the bonnet of its funds, build and manage client portfolios, and enhance the value added to clients’ investments.

Adviser visits to Russell’s website have tripled since its launch in March which is a clear indication that the provision of online help and support is increasingly vital.

Danny Callaghan, head of IFA sales at Russell Investments, said: “Financial advisers need support so they can spend their time generating value for their businesses, and advising their clients. They are bombarded with news and investment information from a variety of sources and it can be difficult to steer a course through the content and find the relevant pieces.

“Russell has teams of experts across a wide range of investment capabilities and they regularly produce insightful and impartial commentary – so we have made advisers’ lives a bit easier by consolidating this into one place alongside the tools they need to help provide the best investment advice for their clients. We want to help them spend as much time with their clients and less time searching for information and support – our new online information suite does that.”

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Saxo Bank Stays With Riis Cycling in 2012

Saxo Bank and Bjarne Riis, owner and manager of Riis Cycling A/S, have announced that Saxo Bank, a sponsor for the cycling team since 2008, will remain co-title sponsor in 2012 with SunGard, one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies.

Bjarne Riis said: “It is indeed a great day for our cycling team. Saxo Bank is an extremely professional company, so I am proud that Saxo Bank has a strong faith in our work and continues to see the commercial benefits in sponsoring our team.”

“Since 2008 we have shown in both words and actions that we are a great match, and I am convinced we will continue to grow together because of the obvious benefits in a long term relationship. The continuity in our partnership also means a lot for the riders and for me personally. Now we can focus all our attention on creating results and the working process of putting together a strong rider group for next year.”

Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, recently launched Saxo Privatbank, combining traditional banking services with a professional investment universe, and the bank says it has taken a strategic decision to continue the sponsorship in 2012.

In a joint statement, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, co-CEOs and co-founders of Saxo Bank, said: “Saxo Bank has always believed it was a sound commercial decision to support Bjarne Riis and the rest of the team but at the same time, it is hard to exaggerate the impact Bjarne Riis has on Danish and international cycling. We have a genuine desire to support Bjarne and provide the team with the necessary resources it takes to stay on top. Bjarne Riis and the team are a huge inspiration and motivation for many young talents, and Saxo Bank is proud to continue to ensure a world class cycling team in Denmark.”

The name of the team will remain ‘Saxo Bank-SunGard Professional Cycling Team’.

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New Site Positioned to Take Over Daily Deals Market Seeking Investors

SocialDealSpot made a splash in the Washington D.C. market this month when it launched its first deal – saving hundreds of local families 50% on a summer camp for children. Complete with all the technical functionalities of its bigger competitors, the folks at SocialDealSpot are ready and able to take on the big boys in the daily deal offerings market.

Consumer-driven SocialDealSpot gives the people what they want (daily notifications of up to 90% in savings) while it boosts the local economy by bringing customers to small, local businesses. SocialDealSpot focuses its efforts on connecting consumers with local businesses. Their unique business model is set up to harvest subscribers interested in receiving deals prior to soliciting for area business partners. An iPhone application will be launching soon as will a forum for business partners to share their “deal offering” experiences. In addition, SocialDealSpot will be launching deals all over the country in the very near future.

They have proven their capabilities and now it’s time to grow. “We have a small team of people with a lot of heart,” says Michelle Peters, SocialDealSpot spokesperson, “our site is set up with the same functionalities you get with sites like Groupon and Living Social and we’ve gotten far with only a handful of committed staff members who believe what we’re doing is making a difference. But, it’s time to take it to the next level – we’re full of ideas of differentiating ourselves from the competition.”

Along with the plans for a larger web presence, SocialDealSpot’s audacious goals include mass media advertising through billboards, radio and television. “Marketing costs money,” says Peters, “but we’re worth it!” An infusion of investment capital will surely take this optimistic team to the next level to compete successfully with the likes of daily deal moguls such as Living Social and Groupon.

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Claude Penland and Sally Ezra Launch Ezra Penland Actuarial Recruitment in Chicago, Illinois

Claude Penland and Sally Ezra, two global leaders in the international actuarial recruiting industry, today as partners announce the launch of their company, Ezra Penland Actuarial Recruitment (“Ezra Penland”) in Chicago, Illinois.

Joining Sally and Claude at Ezra Penland are five outstanding employees. They include Debbie Charbonneau, Kevin Elliott, Dana Kelly, Yvonne McArdle and Emily Moss. To read more about their top quality staff, see EzraPenland.com/recruiters.

Initially, the Group of Seven will be focused on the North American actuarial recruitment market, and then rapidly expand into the global market. It is Ezra Penland’s plan to be the market leader in their niche, as Sally Ezra has spent nearly two decades recruiting actuaries, has developed strong professional relationships and a vast network of clientele. They value her commitment, resourcefulness, her personal attention and, above all, her high level of professional ethics.

Claude Penland is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He has over twenty years of experience as a casualty actuary and as a web strategist for actuarial recruitment organizations.

Ezra Penland additionally announces the timely publishing of their 2011 industry standard United States actuarial salary surveys at EzraPenland.com/salary. These 11 salary surveys include unprecedented detail on compensation for Property and Casualty, Life, Pension and Health actuaries. The details further break salaries down by consulting, reinsurance and insurance/all other employers of actuaries. An Adobe Acrobat file of all surveys is immediately available to be downloaded, printed and shared.

Ezra Penland is becoming known as the publisher of C-level insurance and reinsurance US salary surveys at EzraPenland.com/c-level. These CEO/CFO/CRO/etc. studies can also be found at  LifeSalarySurvey.com,  HealthSalarySurvey.com, CasualtySalarySurvey.com and ReinsuranceSalarySurvey.com.

To read more about their mission, types of searches and their specialities, see EzraPenland.com/about. Past clients and candidates recommend their services highly at EzraPenland.com/testimonials.

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NursesStore in Peak Condition with New Website

NursesStore.co.uk, a supplier of nursing tools and accessories to healthcare professionals, has selected SecureTrading, the UK’s leading independent payment processor, to process its global payments for its new website.

NursesStore.co.uk selected Ascensor, a web design, ecommerce and digital marketing specialist, for its website redesign. Ascenor then recommended SecureTrading for the payment processing based on the company’s reputation of excellent customer service and a secure payment platform.

Patrick Bowes, Commercial Director at NursesStore.co.uk, said, “We needed a new online store so our business could perform more competitively. We also wanted a website that had a robust payments system and could properly support trading at all times.”

Bowes continued, “As we take our business to the next level we have hit a bottle neck on what we could offer customers. With our new site we can offer customers free postage on orders over a certain value. We also have the flexibility to offer certain special offers.”

Tim Allitt, Head of Sales & Marketing, SecureTrading, said, “We’re delighted to be able to support the payments of an organisation like Nurses store.co.uk. It’s crucial that when a business re-launches its site, it remains confident that its customers payments will be processed quickly and without issue so they receive a great experience.”

Andrew Firth, Director, Ascensor, said, “This new site will allow Nurses store.co.uk to offer an even better service to its customers with greater flexibility and much improved site navigation.”

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Markit BOAT to Provide First CFD Trade Reporting System to Saxo Bank

Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, has announced that Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, will begin to report its contract for difference (CFD) trades via Markit BOAT, the trade reporting platform, in September 2011.

Saxo Bank will become the first financial institution to report its CFD Single Stock trades on a voluntary basis, in a bid to bring greater transparency to this fast growing market.

Sophia Kandylaki, Director, Head of Markit BOAT at Markit, said: “We are excited that such a large player in the CFD market has decided to report its trades via Markit BOAT. We will be enhancing our platform to identify CFD trade reports with a unique trade flag. This will differentiate these trades from all other cash equity trades reported to our venue and support Saxo Bank’s efforts to make this market more transparent.”

Claus Nielsen, Head of Markets at Saxo Bank, said: “Saxo Bank has always been a leader and innovator when it comes to transparency and fairness in the trading arena. We are committed to set new standards and by taking an over the counter CFD product like CFDs, and publishing our execution to Markit BOAT, we will bring added value to our clients. This initiative makes the CFD product 100% comparable with the listed stocks traded at the exchange which will have a positive impact on the industry.”

CFDs are over the counter (OTC) contracts between two parties in which the buyers pay the sellers the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time. CFD trades do fall within the scope of the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) but trades are not required to be reported to the market.

Markit BOAT gives users access to trade reports on an average of EUR 375 billion of OTC trades in equities every day. This is equivalent to approximately 70% of the daily volumes reported on all European OTC equity markets.

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Saxo Bank Launches Retail FX Trading Platform ForexTrading.com

Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, has announced the launch of ForexTrading.com which will offer retail investors a select range of FX crosses and CFDs with variable spreads – as low as 0.8 pips. ForexTrading.com provides investors with a range of basic functionalities designed to make trading flexible and straightforward.

ForexTrading.com is powered by Saxo Bank, which is renowned for aggregating liquidity from the world’s leading FX dealers. ForexTrading.com gives traders the ability to trade in the world’s most liquid currency pairs and global commodity CFDs at very competitive spreads.

Claus Nielsen, head of markets at Saxo Bank, said: “Saxo Bank will continue to cater for high-net-worth and institutional traders who increasingly demand usability, mobility, performance, and service when executing online trades and orders. At the same time, ForexTrading.com will appeal to Forex and CFD traders who are price sensitive and do not require a personal service, but still want the ability to utilise an award-winning online trading platform.

“We believe the retail foreign exchange market will maintain its growth trajectory for the next 10 to 15 years and we want to cater for high-net-worth investors as well as high-frequency traders to who tight spreads and deep liquidity are essential. There is no additional commission on ForexTrading.com and we see ForexTrading.com as bringing new competition to the smaller competitors, outside the tier-one banks, in the market focused on foreign exchange.”

The minimum initial deposit when opening an account with ForexTrading.com is $2,000 or equivalent and no interest will be paid on funds on deposit. ForexTrading.com will only offer English support and service and ForexTrading.com only supports retail trading accounts.

More information on Forextrading.com forex accounts can be found on the ForexTrading.com website.

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