The SNB decision hit Saxo Bank hard, the company revealed in a statement Friday.
“Saxo Bank Group estimates the maximum loss that the Bank can incur in relation to the sudden material increase in the price of Swiss Franc on 15 January, 2015, to be DKK 0.7 billion equal to USD 107m on a net basis,” the firm said on Friday.
The statement is a bit confusing because a separate line says “Taking the estimated maximum loss into account the Total Capital of Saxo Bank A/S and Saxo Bank Group would be DKK 1.97 billion and DKK 2.15 billion respectively.” That would be around $330 million.
Even with maximum losses, the company said it “would still more than fulfill its regulatory capital requirements.”
The bad news is that the company is going after clients with negative balances — how hard they will go after them is unclear.
Negative balances
“A number of Saxo Bank’s customers ended up with insufficient margin collateral to cover their losses on positions in the Swiss franc. Saxo Bank is liaising with these clients to settle such unsecured amounts. Some customers will not be able to the settle the balance in full and the bank will incur losses in this respect,” Saxo said.
We unequivocally support brokers who are forgiving negative balances and will take whatever steps we can to encourage all brokers to do the same. We believe it’s the only way traders and the retail foreign exchange industry can move forward.
On that note, shares of FXCM are down 30% today.
Here is a list of forex brokers forgiving negative balances and those who aren’t
