FCA regulated broker OANDA Europe Limited, the London-based EU arm of global retail forex broker OANDA Corporation, has reported its 2015 financial report, indicating a year of significant growth for the company.
Daniel Skowronski, OANDA
Before we get to some of the details and stats, we should note that as with similar subsidiary reports (such as our recent article on the 2015 results at Henyep Group UK sub HY Markets), the financials don’t always tell the whole story. OANDA Europe hedges all its trades with its parent company OANDA Corporation, such that the ‘real’ profit and loss is recorded there. OANDA Europe pays large ‘fees’ to its parent company for use of the OANDA platform and management services, so the net income reported in OANDA Europe is essentially managed by its parent corporation.
However we can still get a fairly good indication from the OANDA Europe books as to the general direction of the company, and its overall health.
Some key stats from OANDA Europe’s 2015 financials:
Trading volumes: FX and CFD volumes at OANDA Europe were up a modest 8% in 2015 over 2014 levels, totaling $154.7 billion for the year, or $12.9 billion per month. Not bad, but given that there was a serious ramp-up in OANDA’s marketing budget for 2015 under new CEO Daniel Skowronski who joined in 2014 from Alpari, it seems that the company might have been hoping for more.
Client Funds: Were up 10% to £37.1 million (USD $53 million) at year end 2015, vs £33.6 million the previous year.
Revenues: OANDA Europe’s Revenues for 2015 nearly doubled, hitting £9.2 million (USD $13.2 million) vs just under £5 million in 2014. But as we wrote above, Revenues at OANDA Europe are somewhat controlled by the intercompany activity between it and the parent company. A better gauge of activity growth at OANDA Europe in 2015 is the 8-10% rise in trading volumes and client funds.
Active accounts: Grew by 7% in 2015 to hit 9,739.
OANDA admitted to taking a large loss in its 2015 financials due to the January 2015 Swiss Franc spike, but didn’t give any specifics beyond that. We had earlier estimated the entire OANDA group’s CHF hit at about $45 million based on reported capital changes at the parent company.
To help bolster the company’s capital base, parent OANDA Corporation put an additional $3.5 million into Oanda Europe during the year, in the form of a share issuance to the parent company. OANDA Europe’s capital stood at £3.8 million at year end.
So what does OANDA Europe plan for 2016? The company’s stated goals for the year include:
- Increase UK market share in FX and CFDs by 2-5% (although that was their stated goal last year as well).
- Develop an efficient marketing engine to garner positive brand awareness and attract new customers.
- Expand presence in Europe and the Middle East.
- Plan to launch OANDA’s next generation trading platform during Q2 (which is almost half over).
OANDA Europe’s 2015 income statement:
