Synthesis Bank takes the lead on-line

At a press conference in Geneva, Charles-Henri Sabet, CEO and majority shareholder of Synthesis Bank, declared that his bank

has returned to its well-renowned forex and trading activities ( 2004 trading volume of CHF45 to 55 billion generated by a staff of only 30 people)
has developed the market’s most comprehensive, efficient and least costly on-line trading floor;
launched new products such as CFDs (Contracts For Difference);
has seen the number of its Swiss, international, private and institutional clients double since the beginning of the year;
is applying its great technological and research capabilities in a new and entirely electronic approach to private wealth management.

Synthesis Bank is born from its founder’s great experience and instinct of the financial markets. In 1991, 30-year-old Charles-Henri Sabet, started the Trading & Commercial Consulting (TCC) company in Geneva, specialised in foreign exchange, options and
interest rates trading. TCC dealt with sophisticated trades with the accent on foreignexchange risk management.
By 1999, TCC had grown to become one of Europe’s top trading institutions and received its banking licence from the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC).

The new bank changed its name to Synthesis in 2000 underlining its intention to offer a
synthesis of all investments’ activities involving financial markets and wealth management. But efforts to develop traditional private-asset management proved inconclusive.

Returning to its initial vocation in 2004, Synthesis Bank launched TradingFloor, a secure, 24-hours on-line trading platform where private and professional investors can trade all financial products; spot and forward currencies, options, CFDs, futures, stocks,
bonds, and precious metals.

The Synthesis TradingFloor offers an innovative class of financial products that is still little known in Switzerland. These are CFDs (Contracts For Difference), the leveraged purchase and sale of stocks without ownership or borrowing of the underlying, which
can constitute a powerful hedge for portfolios.

Charles-Henri Sabet disclosed his ambitions to combine IT and his deep market knowledge to further extend his current Swiss and international client base. Synthesis Bank is targeting external fund-managers, pension funds and other institutional clients
such as banks and corporations, as well as private investors (depositing a minimum CHF 15,000).

Synthesis Bank favours volume over high margins, enabling its clients to minimise trading and back-office costs, while benefiting from highly effective risk management.
The online platform automatically displays market exposure and margins needed for each account in a consolidated manner, irrespective of their asset class. The client is immediately alerted of excessive leverage. Another major advantage: professional
portfolio managers can monitor the positions of all their clients under constant risk control.

The unique feature of TradingFloor is Trademaker. This is for clients wishing to invest according to Synthesis Bank’s recommendations. It displays the bank’s different strategies with stop-loss and profit-taking levels. The investor determines the amount he wishes to invest and a mouse-click starts the recommended operation.

In addition to its trading and execution capabilities, Synthesis Bank wants to distinguish itself from other on-line competitors thanks to its 24 hour on-line service and chat system providing continuously trading ideas and market recommendations.

Through its market presence, fundamental and technical analysis, Synthesis Bank can better assist its clients in their trading activity. It keeps them constantly informed of market conditions and takes an active part in their investment decisions.

Synthesis is today playing a major role in asset management, due to its imaginative investment approach and active performance covering sophisticated financial products in all asset classes: securities, alternative investments and currencies.

After its experience in traditional private banking, Synthesis Bank is returning to wealth-management with a total different approach — a fully interactive offering through its TradingFloor platform.

Synthesis will soon offer a range of discretionary model portfolios with extremely competitive management fees that investors will be able to activate or deactivate at the click of a mouse. It aims at two types of client:

clients who don’t want to take an active role in managing their portfolios, but who
want to monitor permanently its progress.
the knowledgeable investor who wants to benefit from the bank’s dynamic asset
allocation strategy.