Millbank FX is pleased to confirm record growth in the first quarter of 2020.
Benjamin Wilson, Managing Director commented:
‘’I am pleased to report on another impressive quarter for the firm. Across all aspects of the business we have exceeded our expectations which is satisfying given the current economic climate. Our key growth plans remain solid and we have made excellent progress in both our client acquisition and technology objectives.
Client numbers have continued to grow with the expansion of the sales team, again confirming the offering is scalable to a wider market. For the quarter there were 22 new client acquisitions representing a combined annual increase in volume of £96,8m. Revenues for the quarter were up 39.1% YOY (Q1) and trading volume was up 68.7% for the same period. The figures are particularly encouraging with revenues from our other European offices now contributing to the overall gross profit of the firm.
Technology continues to be ever more important to the firm. It is reassuring that the strategic investments made during the course of last year are delivering the anticipated benefits. This provides further confidence in the ongoing investment planned for the rest of this financial year and beyond. Alongside client facing technology, ongoing improvements are being made to increase automation and improve straight through processing.
Whilst there is some uncertainty around the overall impact that the Corona virus will have on global markets, there is no doubt that our clients will face potential challenges in the coming month. As such, the board has continued to review its risk and liquidity positions ensuring the foundations of the company remain strong. Our robust stance to remain a debt free company and continue to invest profits back into the business have provided us with a unique edge over our competitors. Given the company’s superior offering and the quality of our people, I believe we are still able to drive forward under any market conditions as been proven previously. As always it is of course important to achieve our growth objectives. However, a key focus throughout this time is to ensure our offering is maximised for our existing clients and continues to provide as much value as possible’’.
[et_pb_section fb_built="1" admin_label="section" _builder_version="4.0.6"][et_pb_row admin_label="row" _builder_version="4.0.6" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" width="100%" custom_padding="14px|||||"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"]We have undergone a great period of change of late and as part of that we have recruited 5 new members to our team, these new personnel include new traders, a Head of Operations and in December we have our new Chief Technology Officer who not only is going to be our CTO but will also build our new fully bespoke new trading platform.
We have been very fortunate in the recruitment of our new staff, the process facilitated by Emma Naylor our Human Resource and Recruitment Consultant has been an enjoyable one. We had nearly 100 applicants for our FX Sales roles and were highly impressed with the calibre of applicants.
Our new traders have come to us from a diverse range of backgrounds but have all had experience within the FX and Sales fields. We welcome Stephen, Joe and Jeremey to our trading team, we hope that they have enjoyed their training and are adjusting to life at Millbank FX.
Amanda Wood has joined Millbank FX as our Head of Operations, she will help guide the business through the choppy waters ahead, with Brexit on the horizon we are glad to have Amanda’s steady hand in business leadership. Amanda comes to Millbank FX with a huge wealth of business operations and management experience.
Amanda has owned and managed successful businesses within the property, automotive, aggregates and hospitality sectors. She has managed organisations across two continents and is unrivalled in strategic planning and business leadership. Amanda is highly experienced in financial management and accounting and will ensure we have the best leadership possible in these uncertain times.
Kieran Gunn joins Millbank in December 2019 as Chief Technology Officer, Kieran has had a successful career within the FX industry, he has created CRM systems to ensure business growth whilst always ensuring the customer interaction is paramount. Kieran is producing a totally bespoke system for Millbank FX which will combine security, usability and ease of access for all our clients.
Scott Williams Millbank FX Sales Director said when asked about recruitment and the expansion of the Millbank FX workforce ‘’We have established specific areas of the market where the company feels it can add the greatest value. There has been a sustained enthusiastic reception from clients and prospective clients alike in the Millbank FX offering. Original forecasts for the expansion were for the first quarter of 2020 but the demand was such that advancing the timeframe forward was in the best strategic interest of the company’’.
Read more about our leadership team on our “Our People” page.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]Millbank FX are excited to announce the procurement of a new office premises in London’s Greenwich area. Due to the faster than forecasted growth across the first half of the year, the company has taken on larger offices (in line, if not a little earlier than expected!) with its expansion plans, and in order to cater for its increasing staff numbers. It had long been planned that we would move to a more central location and within the European financial hub area of London. We have been fortunate enough to find suitable space within this desirable area.
This central location is ideal for our team and also puts us in close proximity to London City Airport which with our new European offices launching in late 2019 is essential.
Our new office space has enabled us to move forward with not only our European business expansion plans for 2020 early, but also to begin recruitment of our new UK FX Sales Team which will be based here in Greenwich.
‘’Greenwich is a long-established historic part of the city and we are pleased to make this the location for our UK Head Office. Ideally situated within close proximity to city airport which enables us to facilitate our expansion into mainland Europe more efficiently. The company always aims to visit clients in person in order to better understand their businesses and to forge strong lasting relationships’’.
Benjamin Wilson – Managing Director
[et_pb_section admin_label="section"] [et_pb_row admin_label="row"] [et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text"]Millbank FX has experienced a period of Growth outstripping all of our expectations at this point last year given the recent UK economic uncertainty and the current remarkably hostile trading environment.
The ongoing discussions within Europe around Brexit has made it increasingly difficult for Stirling. We saw a significant fall in the markets in May following the announcement of the UK taking part in the European elections despite having passed the second deadline for the UK’s exit from Europe.
The record figures for Millbank FX show that our new and existing clients are still happy to place their faith in us as an organisation and that Millbank FX’s offering is always of the best possible value. With revenue up 12% in the second half of 2018 and overall sales volume increasing by a whopping 161%.
We are also pleased to confirm that not only is our client retention on of the highest in the industry but also that our new clients were up 74% in 2018.
These positive figures go to show that the Millbank FX ethos of ensuring we only work with the right clients and offer a bespoke service which is entirely individualised to every new business which we have dealings with.
These fantastic growth figures also show that Millbank FX plan for growth in 2019 is well on track for procuring new larger office space and expanding our Sales team in the second half of 2019.
‘’It is satisfying to see that the company has not only remained resilient despite the on-going Brexit uncertainly but has grown across all key metrics. This stands as testament that the Millbank client offering has proven itself robust even under adverse market conditions. The entire team have worked exceptionally hard driving the company forward and it is by working together that we can achieve our long term objectives. We look forward to discovering what will be achieved in the second half of the year and we have an optimistic outlook for 2020.”
Benjamin Wilson – Managing Director
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column] [/et_pb_row] [/et_pb_section]