Vision, mission, strategy and objectives

Vision

Internet brokerage: a growing market

The internet enables private investors to make better-informed choices and makes it easier and quicker for them to invest independently. Internet brokerage offers significant advantages over the more traditional channels (by telephone and/or via an account manager). For that reason, online brokerage is a growing market. This growth is expected to be stronger in the European countries south of the Netherlands.

The internet is changing competitive relationships and places the client first

The internet has also changed the relationship between new and existing providers, enabling new players to set up in business at relatively low cost and compete with the established players. Comparison websites make it easier for consumers to find and compare products and services from new and existing players, which they can discuss in online newsgroups. This helps consumers to make rational choices based on price, quality or a combination of the two, rather than choices based on brand name. In our view, the image of a company is thus no longer defined solely by its marketing campaigns and is increasingly being determined by consumer experience that is published on the internet. Client satisfaction will therefore become an increasingly significant factor in companies' future growth.

Internet brokerage is a high-volume low-price price business (economies of scale)

We envisage growing consolidation among providers of online brokerage in Europe in the medium term, with larger players making more cross-border acquisitions, as some French and German players have already done on a smaller scale. The reason is simple: higher transaction volume (bigger scale) will ultimately help to reduce the cost per transaction, which is essential to long-term competitiveness.
A similar trend has already been experienced on the more mature US online brokerage market.

MiFID will change the relationship between stock exchange, liquidity provider and broker

The introduction of MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) will change the relationship between stock exchange, liquidity provider and broker in the future. The requirement to execute orders at best price will result in the creation of alternative trading platforms and alliances between those parties.

Private clients want a bank that places the customer first

Now that the financial establishment has seriously betrayed his confidence, the private financial consumer is looking for reliable providers of transparent services who place the client's interests first ahead of their own.

All private banks are looking to outsource securities administration

Because the processes involved in the execution and administration of securities transactions are often expensive and labour-intensive for banks, we expect them to seek to reduce their costs by increasingly outsourcing this work or using new software. Another cost-raising factor is the increasing regulation, creating an ever more complex environment which requires changes to their
systems and processes.

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