The 2015 Tech 50: Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais

In 2014, for the second year in a row, Saxo Bank doubled its net profit, this time to 381 million Danish kroner ($56.7 million). That’s strong vindication for the strategic shift that founders and co-CEOsLars Seier Christensen, 52, andKim Fournais, 49, made three years ago. The business, a pioneering online brokerage at its start in 1992, converted to a bank in 2001. After it diversified into real estate and asset management with poor results, the two leaders in 2012 refocused their energies on trading innovation. Ahead of most financial institutions, Hellerup, Denmark–based Saxo embraced HTML5, a cross-platform programming language that is at the heart of SaxoTraderGO, a system introduced in May for multi-asset-class trading on any device, desktop or mobile. Touted as “the foundation of the trading platform of the future,” SaxoTraderGO is accompanied by OpenAPI, an application programming interface that will be available to white-label users of Saxo technology as well as external developers later this year. “We believe other banks will adopt this methodology quickly, as it is a way of future-proofing and keeping cost down,” says Christensen. “Unless the incumbents keep up with the pace of innovation and continue to improve the client experience, disruptive forces will seek to fill the void.” One of Saxo’s premier white-label customers, Citi, said in May that it is selling off part of its foreign exchange business. As a result, Saxo is taking on Asia-Pacific clients of CitiFX Pro, who Christensen says will be offered “investment diversification possibilities via our multiasset, cross-collateralized, single-account offering,” not to mention SaxoTraderGO.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”