Italy-headquartered Fineco Bank flagged its plan to expand into Germany before the end of the year as it reported 8% client growth in UK.
Premium trading and investing bank Fineco saw client numbers exceed 20,000 and year-on-year brokerage revenues in the UK close to doubling in Q1.
In the first three months of 2022, client numbers rose almost 8% - or by around 1,500 accounts - to 20,400. Client accounts were less than half that in December 2020.
Meanwhile, at around €500,000, brokerage revenues in the first three months of the year were 95% higher than the corresponding period a year ago.
Fineco launched in Italy in 1999 with a vision to modernise digital banking and it now handles more than £90bn on behalf of 1.4 million customers.
Listed on the FTSE MIB and Euro Stoxx 600, Fineco entered the UK market in 2017 offering premium trading, banking and investment in a single multicurrency account.
Paolo Di Grazia, deputy general manager and head of global business at Fineco Bank, said the group was appealing to serious, skilled and loyal traders.
"Our offering in the UK is proceeding in the right direction: we are attracting experienced traders, who are loyal and looking for a combination of best-in-class price and quality. We are targeting a quality cluster of clients as we are not focused on ‘hit-and-run' highly speculative and volatile customers.
"We now have more than 20,000 clients in the UK, with almost 2,000 acquired in the first four months of the year. On top of this, we are continuing to improve our revenues mix in favour of over-the-counter and listed products, which now represent the lion's share of growth.
"As a result, our UK business is progressively gaining traction and is already profitable at operating level."
In its investment proposition, Fineco is now looking to expand its offering, initially by increasing beyond 21 the number of asset managers available on its platform. Its next goal is to improve investors' user experience by building simple investing journeys and maps to help clients engage with goals-based investing.
Fineco is also in the process of preparing the launch of its offering in Germany, which it anticipates will take place before the end of 2022.
In April 2022, Fineco was named among the best banks in the world (1st in Italy) by US business magazine Forbes. Forbes World's Best Banks 2022 was based on the views of more than 45,000 customers in 27 countries, who ranked their banks on factors including satisfaction and trust.
