2011 was the year in which the Monex Group designed its Global Vision, officially announced the strategy and proceeded in its realization.

 

Currently, 39 percent of our consolidated revenue is derived from overseas subsidiaries and 67 percent of our employees are located outside of Japan. Considering that a year ago, both our revenue and employees were concentrated almost all in Japan , you can see how far we have come in accelerating our globalization efforts. These are results of our focus and strong will to achieve our Global Vision.

 

The Global Vision is a business strategy in which all Monex Group’s companies around the world unite to establish a truly global online financial group. In an environment where the Internet is borderless to begin with, and clients in all of our regions are demanding financial products and services across the globe, we must adapt such diversifying clients’ interests. There are two aspects of the Global Vision: the financial business aspect in which we consolidate global online financial businesses to gain competitive advantage while cutting costs, and the technology aspect in which we build a universal platform and develop different applications by country to establish an efficient business platform.

 

Taking advantage of the strong yen, Monex Group successfully completed three cross border M&As within only one year; Boom Securities (currently Monex Boom Securites) in Hong Kong in December 2010, TradeStation (voted No. 1 online broker in the US by Barron’s) in the United States in June 2011, and Interbank FX (IBFX, a Forex trading broker) in the United States in November 2011. As a result we have globalized our revenue structure and acquired resources necessary for realizing the Global Vision.

 

Monex Boom Securities has a long history in Asia, with access to 12 countries, 17 markets using a single platform. TradeStation is a technology powerhouse, highly acknowledged for its in-house online trading platform. IBFX is an advanced online forex trading broker which also possesses internally developed systems, a customer base in 140 countries worldwide, and innovative social network marketing strategies. Monex, Inc., the core of the Monex Group, has nearly 1 million clients and is the second largest online retail brokerage firm in Japan.

 

The Global Vision will be realized by proactively interweaving TradeStation’s technology, IBFX’s network, Monex BOOM’s stategical position as a foothold for expanding business in China, and Monex, Inc.’s huge client base together with Monex Group’s capital strength and strategies.

 

Currently, Monex Group’s business portfolio consists of four pillars; the online brokerage business in Japan, U.S. (including Europe), and China, and the global FX business. We are in the process of building out a universal technology platform to support these businesses.

 

We are planning to leverage TradeStation’s award-winning technology in various ways. In 2012, we will start providing active trading tools using TradeStation's technology for Japanese equities in Japan, and U.S. stocks, futures, and options trading services in Japan and Hong Kong. By the end of 2013 we plan on providing full-scale services of these tools and convert all our systems in-house for shared global use. We also plan to globally consolidate market information to enhance quality and reduce cost.

 

With the acquisition of IBFX, our FX turnover value has become almost 3 billion USD per business day. This figure ranks us among the top 10 players in the Global FX industry. We will accelerate globalization of the FX business to become the top player by effectively utilizing this size merit and our client base in over 140 countries, and call centers that serves 15 languages.

 

In China, our biggest market for growth, we are the only online broker that already has a representative office in Mainland China and our desire to establish a brokerage subsidiary there has not changed. We are also seeking to capture opportunities through our 100% subsidiary, Monex Boom Securities in Hong Kong, where economic ties with the mainland are strengthening each day. At the same time, we are also looking to expand our services as a financial system provider that does not necessarily require a license to accelerate business in Mainland China by leveraging TradeStation’s technology.

 

It is needless to say that we will pursue cutting-edge technology at all times to heighten our technology capabilities group-wide.

 

To achieve the Global Vision, we believe in the importance of integrating and globalizing human capital. In November 2011, we have started integration of management; the CEO of TradeStation Group has also been appointed COO of Monex Group, and the CSO of Monex Group was also appointed CSO of TradeStation Group. In addition, we have encouraged intra-group communication among local staff and international personnel transfer has been announced. In China, where we have mapped as a strategically critical market, we have already started recruiting local university students as future manager and executive candidates.

 

All these activities have been achieved proactively by our strong will to realize the Global Vision. The Global Vision is a strategy for growth, taking advantage of the waves of globalization, not being wiped out by them. We will continue to powerfully go forward with the realization of the Global Vision in the coming year, as we believe it will lead to our stakeholders’ enhanced return. Please look forward to another exciting year for the Monex Group.