FX: Saxo maintains revenues

Danish online specialist Saxo Bank says it managed to maintain its revenues in the first half of 2009, although an increase in its operating costs, primarily as a result of new office openings, product launches and contributions to the Danish State Guarantee Scheme, adversely affected its pre-tax profits. These came in at DKr55 million ($10.6 million), compared with DKr162 million for the same period in 2008. Operating income remained stable at DKr969 million. "We did expect 2009 to be a difficult year," said Saxo’s joint chief executives Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen. "However, the results reassure us that we took the right decision when we chose to steer the bank into a new phase based on a more flexible structure before the financial crisis took hold."