Founder Kim Fournais to chair Saxo Bank as Safra Sarasin takes majority stake – Daniel Belfer appointed CEO

Kim Fournais has spent more than three decades building Saxo Bank from a Copenhagen start-up into a global trading and investment platform. On 2nd of March, 2026, he reshaped its next chapter.

The founder and chief executive confirmed that the Swiss Safra Sarasin Group has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Saxo Bank, marking one of the most significant ownership changes in the Danish lender’s history – and a pivotal moment in Fournais’ own entrepreneurial journey. Saxo Bank entered the Swiss market in 2007 through the acquisition of Swiss-based Synthesis Bank from Charles Henri Sabet, marking the beginning of its presence in Switzerland.

For Fournais, who co-founded the business in 1992 with Lars Seier Christensen and Marc Hauschildt, the transaction is less an exit than a recalibration. He remains at the helm of Saxo Bank and continues as a substantial shareholder, positioning himself not as a departing founder but as the architect of a longer-term alignment with a Swiss private banking group known for its conservative balance sheet and global wealth management franchise.

People close to the deal describe the agreement as the culmination of months of strategic dialogue. Fournais’ priority, according to those familiar with his thinking, was to secure an owner capable of supporting Saxo’s international expansion while respecting its technology-led culture and independent brand.

Under his leadership, Saxo evolved from a niche foreign exchange broker into a multi-asset investment platform serving clients in more than 180 countries. The bank’s proprietary technology infrastructure – long championed by Fournais – has been central to that transformation, enabling partnerships with financial institutions and providing white-label trading capabilities alongside its direct-to-client offering.

The arrival of Safra Sarasin as majority shareholder provides deeper capital resources and access to a global private banking network. For Fournais, the logic is strategic: combining Saxo’s digital trading expertise with Safra Sarasin’s wealth management reach.

He has repeatedly framed the move as a partnership built on complementary strengths rather than financial engineering. The Swiss group brings long-term stewardship and balance sheet solidity; Saxo contributes scalable technology and a digitally engaged client base.

Crucially, Fournais remains chief executive. Insiders say continuity of leadership was a defining element of the agreement, underscoring the confidence placed in the founder’s strategy and operating model. Governance structures have been updated to reflect the new ownership, but day-to-day management remains under his direction.

In conversations with staff, Fournais has emphasised stability and ambition in equal measure. The message internally has been that Saxo’s entrepreneurial culture – shaped by decades of market cycles – will endure, even as its shareholder base evolves.

For a founder who has steered the bank through the dotcom bust, the global financial crisis and successive waves of fintech disruption, the majority sale represents neither retreat nor reinvention. Instead, it signals a calculated step to secure Saxo Bank’s long-term competitiveness in an increasingly consolidated European financial sector.

With Safra Sarasin now installed as majority owner, the next phase of Saxo Bank’s development will test whether Fournais’ long-held conviction – that technology-led investment platforms can coexist with traditional private banking – can translate into durable cross-border growth.

For Kim Fournais, the deal is ultimately personal. Having built the institution from scratch, he has chosen a partner not to replace his vision, but to reinforce it.

Your Levrata Team