Economic crisis, automation 'halves' stockbroking incomes

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Stockbrokers’ income has halved over the past five years thanks in part to the credit and the economic crises, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday.

However the shift towards computer-managed trading is also having an impact on Dutch brokers’ income, the paper says.

Internal reports from an un-named Dutch financial institution show brokers' earnings on Benelux shares have fallen from €900m in 2007 to just over €400m last year, the FD said.

Small traders

While most of this has affected big automated foreign players such as Société Générale, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, between 10% and 20% of trading is in the hands of Dutch groups such as Rabobank, ABN Amro, ING and Kempen, the paper says.

Pressure on transaction income has led big Dutch banks to invest more in IT than in actual traders which they hope will allow them to compete internationally.

But smaller traders can’t afford the investment and have to fight to survive. The paper points out Amsterdam trader AEK closed down several weeks ago, and last year Petercam reduced the size of its trading team.

Medium-sized SNS Securities has also taken action by cutting staffing costs. ‘Before the crisis in 2007, we had some 30 people working on shares,’ spokesman Erick van Engeland told the paper. ‘Now we have around 15.’

Do you work in stockbroking? Share your experiences using the comments form below.

© DutchNews.nl