What is wrong with Saxo Bank?

The folks at Saxo Bank picked an interesting time to start publishing their forex trading volumes. After hitting a high of $427 billion in January, Saxo Bank has seen its forex trading volume metrics decline steadily in seven of the following eight months, including the five most recent months consecutively, culminating in the $220 billion figure for September — its lowest level this year.

That places Saxo Bank’s September volume 5% below August, and 17% below average volumes in the second half of last year.

So what is wrong with Saxo Bank? On the one hand, the Denmark-based forex broker continues to expand, opening offices around the worldwide (the latest of which is in Sao Paolo, Brazil). But on the other hand, Saxo Bank laid off a good portion of its workforce late last year in an across-the-board cost cutting move, while also we understand cutting back a portion of its marketing budget.

Declining volume, the base of its business, is not very good news for Saxo, which as we understand it has serious IPO aspirations.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.