Saxo Bank July forex volumes of $273 billion are Saxo’s lowest monthly results since last year.

LeapRate has learned that forex broker Saxo Bank did $273 billion in volume during July, down 7% from June’s $292 billion. After a strong start to 2013 — Saxo Bank did record volumes of $427 billion in January and then $368 billion in February — Saxo Bank volume metrics have now declined three months in a row, as per the chart below.

While the ‘summer slowdown’ may be partly to blame, we understand that after several years of rapid growth — in 2012 and through early this year Saxo Bank opened offices in Istanbul, Uruguay, Warsaw and Cyprus — Saxo Bank has severely cut back expenses, laying off 20% of Saxo Bank staff, jettisoning non-core operations, and also cutting back on some marketing spend.

Is Saxo Bank cleaning house in preparation for an IPO? Perhaps, but if it wants to follow in the footsteps of the KVB Kunlun IPO and the Plus500 IPO and go public it will need to show, in our view, the ability to grow its volumes. 

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