Delta Index to spread its business

Irish financial spread betting company Delta Index is preparing to start operating in Britain and Germany in the next few weeks. The company is awaiting a license from the Financial Regulator which will allow it to operate in any EU jurisdiction.

The company which has a turnover of around EUR5 million, believes the vast majority of its business will come from Europe within three to five years.

Under MiFID, an EU directive designed to level the playing field for financial institutions, Delta Index can trade contracts for difference (CFDs) and its spread betting business across Europe.

The company had hoped that the Financial Regulator would license it under MiFID last November and hence, has seen its expansion plans delayed. Michael O’Shea, joint managing director of Delta Index, says the licensing process had taken longer than expected. ‘For us as a business, this regulation is critically important. Our goal from day one, when we set up the company six or seven years ago, was to go after the European market. We have been very much building the business with the intention of selling internationally.’

Three years ago, the company invested in technology and staff to support its European ambitions. ‘The license doesn’t make a huge amount of difference for the Irish market, but it allways us to passport our regulation into every other jusisdiction in the EU,’ said O’Shea.

‘We’re primarily focused on going into Britain and Germany, so 90 per cent of our efforts in terms of international expansion is focused on going into these markets, although we do have more modest ambitions for Hungary, Spain and even, in time, Italy.’

O’Shea said that the potential for Europe was huge. In the next year, the company would like to see revenues from overseas operations accounts for 20 per cent of business. However, it eventually expects Ireland to account for a small portion of income.

The company has hired Paul Sommerville, from rival spread betting company CityIndex Advisory, as head of its private clients desk in London.

O’Shea said that the Irish business had faced challenges due to the woes experienced by local investors. He said trades were up, but values were down.

Delta Index employs 26 people in Dublin, and it is expected that this number will increase significantly to support the European expansion.

Tags: Delta Index, deltaindex, MiFID

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 12:02 am and is filed under Broker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.