Japanese Giant Monex Acquires Sony Bank

The Monex Group has further developed its position as a leader in financial services by acquiring Sony bank, a Japanese commercial bank. The deal wich cost Monex $27 million offers the group a new market in the banking sector.

Monex is one of the largest FX brokers, it had two major acquisitions in 2011 when it purchased Interbank FX and Tradestation. According to Forex Magnates Research Japan is the largest FX market in terms of clients and daily trading volumes.

Monex share price was trading at YEN 11,490.

Sony Bank is part of the Sony Group, it was established in 2001. Sony Bank started offering margin FX to clients in 2008 and became a member of the Financial Futures association of Japan.

Monex will acquire Sony Securities a division of Sony Bank, Sony Securities has over 57,000 customers. Sony Bank will be fully merged into Monex Group by 2013, this gives Monex access to additional 899,000 clients.

Sony Bank is known for its environmentally friendly activities, in 2008 Sony Bank was the first Japanese carbon-netural bank. This was due to its purchase of renewable-energy credits. Issued by the Japan Natural Energy Company, the Green Power Certificate equals 1.1 million kilowatt hours—enough to cover the bank's entire annual electricity consumption—and saves the equivalent of 400 tons of greenhouse-gas emissions.