Retail forex broker eToro has announced a cooperation agreement with China’s largest internet finance company, Lufax Holding Ltd. The strategic partnership will introduce eToro to Lufax’s overseas Chinese clients.
LeapRate readers will recall that multi-asset online broker Saxo Bank announced a similar partnership with Lufax back in May. We understand that the Saxo Bank partnership is indeed still in force, and will be targeted mainly at high end traders, while the eToro hookup will focus mainly on ‘retail’ traders and those most interested in eToro’s forte of social and copy trading.
Lufax is China’s largest internet finance company, active in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending business. In its latest funding round earlier this year from investors including Bank of China Group, Guotai Junan Securities and Minsheng Bank, Lufax was valued at about $19 billion. As of November Lufax has more than 25 million registered users, a quarter of which are active investors.
The partnership with Lufax shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Lufax’s largest shareholder is Chinese insurance and investment giant Ping An Insurance (Grp) Co of China Ltd (SHA:601318). Ping An led a $27 million investment round in late 2014 in eToro.
According to remarks made today to reporters by Lufax CEO Gregory Gibb, Lufax plans to launch a complete online platform in 2017, granting wealthy mainlanders legal access to foreign capital markets to cater to their surging demands for asset diversification.
Chinese FX regulator State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) allows each mainlander to buy up to USD $50,000 worth of foreign currencies a year.
Yoni Assia, eToro co-founder and CEO said:
The Chinese market has an increasingly strong appetite to invest. This new partnership will provide overseas Chinese customers with the most advanced investment tools to trade with our global social trading community.
China is a strategic market for us and this collaboration with a leading internet finance company solidifies our commitment to democratise the financial markets for everyone to invest.
Gregory Gibb, Lufax
CEO of Lufax Holding Ltd. Gregory Gibb said:
eToro will provide our overseas clients with the innovative technology that satisfies their increasing investment needs. We pride ourselves in offering a first class trading experience and our partnership with eToro ensures that we continue to deliver on this goal.
As part of the partnership, the collaboration will also explore technical development, system maintenance, marketing and branding.