Oki Matsumoto
Monex is preparing launch a new product dedicated to the Australian market, Finance Magnates can confirm. The company will use the ASIC license of its IBFX subsidiary acquired together with TradeStation in 2011 to deliver a globally oriented brokerage solution in Australia.
The foreign exchange trading accounts of the IBFX subsidiaries in the US and Australia were sold to OANDA and FXCM a couple of years ago. Monex retained the Australian Financial Services license which allows it to market derivatives and securities. The company is also planning to reintroduce foreign exchange trading, but not before next year.
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The new unit of Monex in Australia will be headed by Alex Douglas. The operations are expected to begin in October this year. Finance Magnates exclusively spoke to the CEO of Monex Group, Oki Matsumoto, who provided some insight into the rationale of delivering this new product to the Australian market.
What was the main reason for the development of the new product?
We do have a lot of resources at our disposal. We already have brokerage operations in the US, Japan and Hong Kong. As we thought how we can Leverage these resources in a new geographical region, Australia came to mind. There is a very big asset management industry in Australia, with a lot of savings. When we saw that the main investment flows were centered on the local market, we identified an opportunity to grow our presence.
What technology are you going to use for the offering?
The Execution engine that we will use will be based on our Hong Kong subsidiary’s BOOM technology. We will execute US equities through TradeStation, Japanese equities through Monex and Hong Kong equities via BOOM. The platform will be connected to a total of 12 countries with 15 different markets. Our BOOM product is already proven with an easy to use interface for our Australian clients. We managed to execute this project within a very short period and with an effective cost base. After we launch this business in Australia we have the ability to launch a similar product in other countries.
Do you already have any specific countries in mind?
We are focusing for now on the launch in Australia. Our platform is available in both English and Chinese, which will give us the upper hand when targeting a significant percentage of the Australian population with Chinese heritage. We can easily launch in any English and Chinese speaking countries. We can also cooperate with any local player that is looking for a white label solution for a stock brokerage. As long as our partners handle marketing and customer service, we can provide the rest.
How is your service different to those of existing stockbrokers in Australia?
The existing firms on the market are offering a solution which is mainly focused on Australian equity markets. Some companies that recently entered the market are also offering access to the US market. We are offering stock trading in shares listed in Hong Kong, China (including Shanghai A, B and Shenzhen A, B), Taiwan, US, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
