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RETAIL e-FX CLIENT<br />
Regional Retail FX Perpectives on<br />
Central &<br />
Eastern Europe<br />
By Larry Levy<br />
The CEE generally refers to the group of<br />
"Central and Eastern European" countries,<br />
formerly called the Eastern Bloc during the<br />
Cold War. These include Albania, Bosnia and<br />
Herzegovinia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic,<br />
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia,<br />
Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,<br />
Slovenia, Serbia and, though it was never in<br />
the <strong>com</strong>munist Eastern Block as such, Turkey.<br />
Recently, e<strong>Forex</strong> interviewed Karol Piovarcsy,<br />
head of the newly opened Saxo Bank branch<br />
office in Prague and Vladimir Kisyov, Head of<br />
Business Development at Deltastock in Sofia,<br />
Bulgaria about the growth prospects for Retail<br />
FX in this region.<br />
130 | january 2010 e-FOREX<br />
Local Presence<br />
Saxo Bank is clearly looking to take advantage of newly<br />
created wealth and disposable in<strong>com</strong>e in the CEE<br />
region, and it's obvious that having a local office<br />
enhances business development in that country and<br />
surrounding countries. Deltastock, with its head office in<br />
a CEE country (Bulgaria) looks naturally to business in<br />
the region and now also elsewhere, having also opened<br />
offices in Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.<br />
Of the various CEE countries, both confirm that<br />
Poland is the biggest country in terms of customers.<br />
This is due to is relative wealth, population size and a<br />
relatively high disposable in<strong>com</strong>e. Also surprisingly<br />
highlighted was Romania as a major market, which<br />
Piovarsky mentioned as a growth area and where<br />
Deltastock has opened a branch office.<br />
Based in Prague, Piovarcsy highlights the local Czech<br />
Republic and Slovak Republic markets as customer<br />
sources (formerly Czechoslovakia). Both also<br />
mentioned the relative wealth of neighbouring<br />
Hungary as a valuable source of customers. Deltastock,<br />
based in Bulgaria is also in a good place to harness<br />
more South Eastern European countries such as<br />
Bulgaria itself as well as interest from Turkey. However,<br />
the republics of the former Yugoslavia and other<br />
countries in the CEE appear to have generated fewer
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