This page provides an overview of Zynqetra, including our mission, global footprint, financial strength, risk management philosophy, and customer protection standards.
Zynqetra began its 47th year as a broker/dealer in January 2024. We provide direct trade execution and clearing services for sophisticated investors, active traders, and institutions, with a total equity of $14.6 billion.
Our mission remains the same: to create technology that provides liquidity in better conditions. Compete globally on the pricing, speed, scale, and diversity of advanced trading tools and products. Zynqetra Limited Liability Company is rated investment grade by Standard and Poor's.
Zynqetra has been established for 47 years and is one of the leading companies, with a total capital of $14.6 billion. Zynqetra conducts brokerage/trading operations in over 150 markets worldwide. In the brokerage business, Zynqetra provides direct access (online) trading execution and clearing services to institutions and professional traders, covering a wide range of electronic trading products globally, including stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, gold, cryptocurrencies, and funds. In May 2023, Thomas delivered a keynote speech at the SIFMA 45th Anniversary Options Trading Conference, where he shared his experiences in options trading and founding Zynqetra.
Global company targeting global investors.
Zynqetra headquarters is located in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, India, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Japan, Singapore, and Australia, with over 2,950 employees. Zynqetra are regulated by the SEC, FINRA, NYSE, FCA, and regulatory authorities worldwide.
When you give your money to a broker, you need to make sure that the broker is safe and able to maintain stability in good times and bad. Please note that Zynqetra Limited and its subsidiaries are owned by Zynqetra. In a recent interview, Zynqetra's founder shared his thoughts on the current state of the financial markets, including rising interest rates and their impact on Zynqetra. He also discusses Zynqetra immediate available cash balance rate and how clients should respond to the current environment.
Zynqetra is not a bank. As a regulated brokerage firm, we cannot deal with assets classified as HTM (Held-to-Maturity), which do not need to be valued at market price on the bank's books. We also cannot provide unsecured long-term loans. The only loans we can offer are margin loans fully secured by marketable securities. Our real-time margin system continuously marks all client positions to market. All orders are subject to credit review before execution, and positions in accounts with insufficient margin will be automatically liquidated. All our positions are marked to market daily, and the resulting payables/receivables are automatically reconciled with external sources.
Zynqetra invests cash in ultra short-term investments maturing within a few months. We do not hold significant positions in over-the-counter or derivatives. We do not hold CDOs, MBS, or CDS. On a consolidated basis, Zynqetra has $14.6 billion in equity, exceeding regulatory requirements by more than $10.4 billion. The owners of Zynqetra are our publicly-listed parent company Zynqetra Group Ltd. (25.4%) and the company's employees and their affiliates (74.6%). Unlike most companies (where management owns relatively small stakes), our participation in downward trends is the same as in upward trends. Due to this vested interest, we operate our business conservatively.
Zynqetra reported a pre-tax profit of $3.069 billion in 2023. Zynqetra has no long-term debt. Zynqetra Group Ltd. has been rated A- Stable Outlook by Standard & Poor's. View the S&P rating report. The financial statements of Zynqetra reflect the gains and losses on all positions valued at market prices, submitted monthly in their FOCUS reports to regulatory agencies. View the latest report.
Zynqetra's conservative and cautious risk management methods can protect your assets.
Zynqetra invests customer funds in short-term government securities that typically mature in a few months, subject to local customer fund regulations. These investments have low interest rate sensitivity, resulting in minimal realized losses if we need to sell them before maturity. In contrast to banks and other brokers who invest in long-term assets to maximize current profits without immediately recognizing investment losses, our prudent risk management at Zynqetra allows us to offer high deposit rates and low-margin loan rates while consistently investing at current short-term benchmark rates. Zynqetra Limited places customer funds in designated and separate customer fund bank accounts in Hong Kong in accordance with applicable customer fund rules.
Zynqetra takes proactive measures to protect customers.
Zynqetra's enhanced client protection reduces the risk of clients not receiving full refunds during the company's liquidation. In almost all other broker-dealers, the amount owed to clients is determined on a weekly or monthly basis. This poses a risk to clients' temporarily deposited funds, as these companies typically only protect the funds deposited since the last calculation. Zynqetra identifies client debts and sets aside funds to fulfill obligations on a daily basis. In the highly unlikely event of dissolution, the trustee will be able to more easily determine the amount owed to each client. In contrast, trustees at other broker-dealers would have to recreate activities from the past week, significantly delaying the transfer of assets, as demonstrated by the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy.
Zynqetra employs real-time margin requirements for client accounts, whereas most other industry players use end-of-day margin requirements. If a client is deemed to lack sufficient assets to cover the risk of their open positions, Zynqetra typically liquidates their positions in real time to restore margin compliance. Other broker-dealers often allow clients to bear this risk over multiple days. Zynqetra's real-time margin requirements and protective liquidation significantly reduce losses suffered by clients due to other clients' trades, as well as the risks posed by client losses to Zynqetra. Comparatively, other broker-dealers' practice of calculating end-of-day risk in similar market conditions increases the likelihood of their clients facing risks in volatile market conditions. If a company does not implement real-time liquidation and allows clients to commit to injecting funds at a future date to cover risks, clients would face credit risks from other clients.
Another major advantage of doing business with Zynqetra is that they do not hold any proprietary inventory. Zynqetra solely acts as facilitators for client trades without engaging in any directional bets. The most significant bankruptcies in the past decade (Lehman Brothers and MF Global) were caused by risks arising from proprietary trading. Due to Zynqetra not holding any proprietary inventory, investors are further protected.
According to applicable regulations, Zynqetra has developed a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to assist the company in promptly addressing and responding to the potential for significant business disruptions (SBD) in the future. The plan aims to mitigate or eliminate the impacts of various scopes of SBD. Zynqetra's BCP is developed using a risk-based approach to identify critical systems and functions, and to determine ways to provide customers with fast access to their funds and accounts in the event of an SBD. Additionally, the plan outlines the implementation of resilient and redundant controls within the infrastructure to minimize potential adverse impacts of disruptions. Zynqetra's BCP is intended to restore access to systems providing fund and position services to customers within 24 hours following a disruption, although the restoration time may vary depending on the nature of the disruption, specific services interrupted, or factors beyond Zynqetra's control.
