Admiral Markets AS, the Estonian-based financial trading provider of Admiral Markets Group, has applied for a credit institution licence through the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority. The licence, which is currently being processed by the Estonian regulator, will complement the broker’s core service offering - providing investment services.
The firm originally announced that it had applied for the licence on August 29 this year. However, today the firm has provided more details on its motivation behind the move.
According to the statement, its main goal in obtaining the licence is to provide payment services and deposit transactions by acquiring deposits from the public and loans issuance in addition to its current investment offerings. In order to offer this service, financial institutions need to have a credit institution licence, hence the application.
Once the application has been approved and the licence issued, Admiral will widen its service offering. However, the Estonian regulator is not able to provide any estimates for when the licence will be approved.
Sergei Bogatenkov
Source: Admiral Markets
Commenting on the application, Sergei Bogatenkov, the CEO of Admiral Markets AS, said: "We are pleased to have taken this next step in offering our clients a superior investment experience. As a multi-award winning broker, delivering a seamless trading experience is at the forefront of Admiral Markets' business decisions.
Should the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority approve this application, clients can expect us to further build upon our outstanding performance."
In the statement, the firm makes a point of highlighting that the licence won’t affect the current activity of Admiral Markets AS. The broker plans to offer these new services across the European Union.
Licence application follows a strong H1 for Admiral Markets AS
The announcement of the licence application follows a record-breaking first half for the company. In August this year Finance Magnates reported that net trading income saw an impressive year-on-year increase of 40% in the first half of 2018, coming in at €12.6 million ($14.7 million). In the same period last year, net trading income was €9 million.
Net profit came in at €5 million - a sizeable jump of 127% from the first half of 2017, which saw a net profit of €2.2 million. Operating expenses increased by 24% year-on-year to reach €7.7 million. This was mainly driven by an uptick in online Marketing costs.
