Quote from Lon Eagle:
I am sure you are right but I feel I should comment on a couple of your points.
On what basis do you say Deutsche are a part owner? I know there is a dealing relationship but not sure there is any ownership. Indeed there is no mention of this on Saxo's own website. Indeed They state that 85% of the equity is held by the holding company with the rest held by Saxo's management.
Deutsche have got a subordinated loan with Saxo but this ,I believe, is for only Eur10m . Interestingly at the time of the loan it was equal in value to the bank's capital. This does show how small the bank is in reality. I would stress though that a subordinated loan does not equal ownership and indeed Deutsche have no one on the Board. As a rule you will find all very small banks have to have suboridnated loans from other banks to help the Central Bank's liquidity requirments. They are not usually cheap though.
On what basis do you say Deutsche is Europe's largest bank. Its credit rating with Moodys is only Aa3 - a number of European banks have considerably better credit ratings and considered more credit worthy. Surely that is the best way to evaluate a bank's strength. I believe it is not the largest bank by capital either.
In 2003 Saxo Bank got 10m Euro in capital from Deutsche Bank, so Deutsche Bank is now among the owners of Saxo Bank. Yes, Saxo Bank is not a big bank, but it is a very profitable bank. By the way: The first 30k Euro placed in Saxo Bank are covered by a insurance fund, which all Danish banks belongs to. So your money are safe.
I believe Deutsche Bank is the bank in Europe with most customers.
P.S. I am only a customer in Saxo Bank.