Dukascopy are now a Swiss Bank

Dukascopy have finally followed in the footsteps of MIG, and after a long wait they have at last received their banking licence from FINMA, the Swiss regulator. Consequently they now proudly call themselves "Dukascopy Bank SA". According to their press release:

The Banking Authorization is a confirmation of a successful transition and an upgrade of Dukascopy’s organization. The changes that have been orchestrated within the Company’s infrastructure were conducted by a committed team that has designed a new Corporate Governance and an Internal Control System in line with Swiss Banking requirements.

It seems as if Dukascopy have had some projects on hold, waiting for the green light from FINMA. According to their CEO Alain Broyon:

It is a tremendous accomplishment for our team which has passed FINMA’s rigorous screening while
managing to develop the business to confidently sail past the financial crisis. The banking license represents an important step for our long term development. Dukascopy now opens its doors for partnerships, to provide its advanced technology via a new White Label Solution.

Dukascopy Bank SA will keep its Electronic Communication Network business model while increasing its business relationships with other banks, institutions, High Net worth Individuals and retail clients.

If you are a retail client then the barriers to entry to trading via a fully fledged Swiss bank are not as high as you might expect. You can now open a retail forex trading account with a Swiss bank with a deposit as little as $1000. In another move in the retail direction Dukascopy have also been beta testing MetaTrader 4 for quite some time now. As if that wasn't enough they support what most MT4 brokers refer to as micro-lots too.

Now that their FINMA license has been obtained, I can't help wondering if there will be any more exciting news from Switzerland for retail forex traders in the not too distant future.