Congrats to Mikaal and Mathias at 8 Securities for having CBS MoneyWatch cover their amazing success in such a short time:

“8 Securities believes its technology gives them a cost, scale and speed advantage that traditional financial services companies in Asia will be challenged to match. “The combination of powerful technology and a seamless customer experience across all channels is simply a must for any company that wants a future in Asia,” said Mr. Helleu.

8 Securities’ new frontier is online wealth management. The company is now preparing for the launch of an online wealth management service to compete directly with traditional banks, asset managers and advisors. There are now over 3.4 million high net worth individuals in Asia who hold over $10 trillion USD in assets. “Customers in Asia are evolving quickly but the banks and asset managers that serve them are not. It’s a perfect opportunity to challenge these traditional competitors by radically redefining the user experience and fee structure,” said co founder Mikaal Abdulla.

Looking forward, 8 Securities’ business has the potential to generate over 50% profit margins while reducing the fees charged by its traditional competitors by as much as 90%. “Our future in Asia is very bright. Our growth and the value we generate for our customers are perfectly aligned. We have a very large market opportunity in front of us and a very clear value proposition for our customers,” said Mr. Helleu. “We are actively pursuing new opportunities in China, India and the Middle East. Our technology is flexible enough to service both individual investors and enterprise customers. We are keeping an open mind with respect to how we launch our online trading and wealth management products into these new markets.”

Read the full story here.