XTB, one of the largest Forex and CFDs brokers worldwide, cited 2019 as one of its most successful corporate earnings seasons.
According to the company, the stock indices CFDs segment generated 75 percent of the company’s total revenue. That was a significant jump from last year’s 49 percent.
Meanwhile, FX CFDs only amounted to 18.0 percent of total revenues compared to 2018’s 23.5 percent. XTB cited the EUR/USD currency pair as its most popular instrument for 2019.
ESMA Rules Impact on XTB
However, although its Q4 year-over-year results doubled, the Poland-based trading company still reported a 43 percent decrease in its full year results.
XTB has yet to recover from ESMA’s change in regulations which has affected them since last year.
According to the company, “In 2019 the revenues decreased by 17,0 y/y i.e. PLN 48 997 thousand from PLN 288 301 thousand to PLN 239 304 thousand. One of the relevant factors which determined the level of revenues of XTB was the product intervention of ESMA. Coming into force in August 2018. Consequently, CFDs turnover in lots amounted to 1 597 218 lots compared to 2 095 412 a year earlier.”
Yet the company remained hopeful with new account openings during the last quarter of 2019, recording an 80 percent increase from last year – bringing their total to 10,424 new accounts.
Furthermore, “In 2019 XTB introduced CFD instruments based on sector indices, such as biotechnologies, cannabis and technology companies to its offer. At the same time, the stock and ETF offer was constantly expanded by new instruments desired by clients. XTB is constantly developing its own xStation trading platform by adding new functionalities.”
This expansion, coupled with other strategies, yielded an increase in XTB’s yearly net deposits which rose 23 percent to PLN 409 million ($105 million) from PLN 333 million last year, demonstrating the company’s resilience.
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