Geely’s Saxo Bank unit offers to help build a financial ecosystem for customers, keeping abreast with China’s market liberalisation

Saxo Bank, the Danish financial technology company owned by China’s largest non-state carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding, wants to help investors access the 40,000 financial instruments that are trading globally, in line with the liberalisation of the Chinese financial markets.

Those financial instruments comprising stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, foreign exchange, futures and options can be accessible via Saxo’s multi-asset trading platform, its core business. Saxo is also helping its parent Geely expand the auto finance business for retail customers, said its founder and chief executive officer Kim Fournais.

“Geely has a lot of ambition in building a broader financial ecosystem in China, which I believe wants to expand on from its existing offerings in car loans and leasing services,” Fournais said in an interview this week. “Hopefully, we can play an important part in enabling that ambition, once we get the required local licences.”

In fact, Fournais has an idea which may fit in snugly with Geely’s ambition of transforming its future models into all-electric, 5G-enabled cars that can connect to the internet. Working through Apple’s CarPlay standard, Saxo is able to let customers access its financial services platform through voice command.

A prototype has already been tested on a vehicle fitted with CarPlay, Fournais said. Geely and its sibling brand Volvo have fitted all their latest models with the Apple standard that enables car radios or head units to be used as displays or controllers through iOS devices.

“Geely’s investment in Saxo underlines its trust in our understanding in the areas of fintech and regtech. Chairman Li [Shufu]’s vision is aligned with that of Saxo’s and our parent is helping us navigate the Chinese market,” Fournais said.