Firstly on the wave of optimism from upbeat fourth quarter in 2014, the online brokerage company Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. posted a loss during first three months of this year, largely related to the Swiss National Bank (SNB) cap removal. Besides this Black Thursday, IB would end with another positive quarter, but the alpine-action tested its resilience.
IB reported a pre-tax loss of $111 million, much lower from Q4 2014's $74.3 million, while net revenues eased to $172 million, what is 17.4% lower from the last three months in 2014.
Nevertheless, besides being hurt by this immediate swiss shock, IB can be still optimistic. Number of new customers accounts jumped 17% to actual 296,000, while equity of customers rose even 25% higher to $61.2 billion compared to Q1 2014. Electronic brokerage pre-tax profit margin was up 18% and brokerage segment equity reached $3.1 billion, making total equity $5.0 billion.
Market making sector was the company's laggard, posting pre-tax income drop by 59% to $27 million on a yearly basis. IB reports the reason as low volatility on the market and lifted competition.
As for the sole Black Thursday SNB's decision impact, this contributed to Q1 2015 losses net of hedging, reaching $121 million.
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