Review of 2019 and Finax plans for 2020

We are extremely pleased that in Finax, we are able to fulfil our goal of building a business that has a long-term vision and stability. We wanted to create an investment tool for Slovaks and Central Europeans. Based on the existing results, we have managed to achieve this goal.

Last year, we set the following main strategic goals:

• 7-fold growth of managed assets, (achieved)
• 5-fold increase in the number of active clients, (achieved)
• expansion into three Central European countries, (achieved)
• technological and innovative growth, (achieved)
• Intelligent investing for employers,(achieved)
• teaching financial literacy in schools. (unfulfilled)

In-depth business results of Finax, various statistics and interesting facts concerning our activities can be found in a separate article Second year of Finax in numbers.

This year, we are also publishing an article about our 2020 plans, that reveals this year goals.

Managed assets and number of clients at the end of 2020

For 2020, we have set the following goals:

• 60 mil. euros of managed assets, which represents 200% year-on-year growth,
• 11 000 active contracts, approaching a 200% increase.

Expansion to more countries of Central and Eastern Europe

In 2019, we managed to expand into the first three markets outside Slovakia. We made our services available in Czechia, Poland and Hungary. We also launched an English version of our website.

But when we say that we have expanded into these markets, we are not only talking about the fact that a Pole can open an account. We have also adapted all of our services to each market:

• website and contractual documentation are in the local language,
• we have employed no less than two people to answer all of the questions regarding the product in the local language,
• we use local banking services, clients can deposit funds in the local currency and Finax favourably converts the funds into euros,
• adjusting investment strategy and rebalancing to the local tax laws,
• blogs, webinars, emails and newsletters are adapted to every country.

In 2020, we plan to expand at least into two new markets. The first country will be Croatia, where we plan to expand at the end of February. We want to enter another market by the end of the year and we are also considering expanding beyond the European Union.

While today, the share of foreign to domestic registrations is below 10%, our goal is that by the end of the year, foreign registrations will make up 30% of the total monthly registrations. This is the reason why this year we will focus mainly on these countries with our marketing activities.

Technological and innovative growth 

In 2019, we fulfilled our technological resolutions exactly as we planned. We launched regular withdrawal portfolios, a new way of registering a client and an online overview of statements, invoices and documents for tax returns.

During the year, we managed to implement a very powerful online marketing tool Exponea that allows us to fully automate email and marketing communication with clients. The introduction of Exponea has made it easier for us to enter new markets.

We are extremely proud to announce that we are the first broker in Europe to launch online biometric identity verification. This verification method is used by up to 70% of our direct clients, well above our expected 50%.

But we do not plan on slowing down even in 2020. Our goal is to gain a great technological lead to discourage competition from entering our industry. From the innovations that we plan to introduce during the year, we will mention:

• Finax mobile application,
• digital registration of children and companies,
• optimising savings for families.

We are also working on obtaining a payment service license. I believe that we are already very close and by the end of this year we will be able to launch a service that will give you a better overview of your personal finances and will be able to advise you on where you are making mistakes so you can save even more effectively.

Intelligent investing for employers 

Several employers are already contributing to their employees through Finax instead of the 3rd pillar. They make use of the benefits of Intelligent Investing.

This year, we want to add additional benefits to our employers’ accounts to make our employee program even more attractive. I will personally try to enforce levy benefits in case of the Long-Term Investment Savings product.

The current government had them in a program statement for 2019, but the new Minister of Finance stopped the introduction of third pillar competition. More information will be available after the elections and we will try to once again enforce this change from the position of the Securities Brokers Association.

Financial literacy

Addressing financial literacy in schools was too much for us this year. I personally taught financial education in my older son's classroom. I was extremely pleased with the interest that the children showed and I will further continue with this project.

In the autumn of 2019, we launched Finax podcasts that are very successful. Our podcasts were played more then 20 000 times.

Therefore, we decided to add more variety to our podcasts. This year we will introduce new topics from the investment environment and personal finance. As of March, we are also launching podcasts in video format. At the same time, we plan to invite interesting guests to interviews about the above-mentioned topics.

2020 – Year of expansion

Intelligent investors who have been following our activities from the beginning have certainly noticed that we are not planning on such immense technological and product innovation for 2020 as we did for last year.

While the year 2018 is for Finax the year of its creation and entry to the market, the year 2019 is the year of establishment. Our brand has expanded into the Slovak financial market and attracted many people.

We have clearly shown that we are a newcomer with great ambition that has to be reckoned with and who has taken, in a very short time, a remarkable place in the financial industry. We think of the year 2020 as a year of expansion.

We want to focus our energy mainly on foreign and marketing activities. In the operational and technological field, we see 2020 as a year of stabilisation and maintenance. We would like to eliminate minor bugs, increase user comfort and catch up on postponed tasks.

Finally, we would like to thank you very much for your kindness and the trust you have in us. Those, who have started working with us in our beginning had some concerns and uncertainty. However, we believe that last year has convinced you that your decision was correct.

Your satisfaction with our services is a tremendous motivation and a real satisfaction for us. Our goal is to continue our mission, to improve our services and to enrich you not only financially but also knowledge-wise. Therefore, even in 2020, we will not stop with our efforts and we firmly believe that we will satisfy your high demands to the same extent as we have done so far.