Chairman’s message

Dear shareholders, customers, colleagues and other readers,

It is with great pleasure that I present you this annual report of BinckBank for the financial year 2009. We can look back on a good year, in which we achieved the highest profit since the foundation of BinckBank. Initially 2009 seemed to start off as a tough year. It seemed that there was no end in sight to the falling market prices, and in the last quarter of 2008 many financial institutions appealed to the government for assistance. The economy had been unprecedentedly hard hit, and the media were gloomy about the prospects. But thanks to our customers and employees, and our solid financial policy, BinckBank weathered the crisis unscathed, without any outside help whatsoever. We ended the 2009 financial year with an outstanding result: an adjusted net profit of €78 million (€1.04 per share). We will propose a dividend payment of €0.52 per share to shareholders.

The customer at the centre

The credit crisis meant that great attention was focused on the policies followed by financial institutions. At the start of 2009 an independent investigation into this was carried out by the Future of Banking advisory committee. One of its main conclusions was that banks should once again make the interests of their customer their primary concern. For us this was yet another confirmation of our distinctive strength in comparison with the large banks. At BinckBank the customer has always been at the centre of everything we do, just as it should be.

Best online broker

This was acknowledged in the market. We scored well in many independent surveys. For example, in February we were named as best broker by IEX Netprofiler, and in November we were presented with the Gouden Stier award for best online broker, investment institution and ‘Stock Market Favourite’ by the belegger.nl investors’ website. In Belgium we were voted ‘Best Buy’ by the Belgian Consumers’ Association. Our customers value our services, and we greatly appreciate that.

BinckBank share price

The price of BinckBank shares saw a powerful recovery in 2009. In 2008 we were still being swept along with the negative mood in the market, but in 2009 the BinckBank share price rose by 130% from €5.45 to €12.54. We constantly strive to create shareholder value. By offering our customers an outstanding product with customer-oriented service at highly competitive prices our company can grow and our profits grow with it. In combination with the payment of an attractive dividend, this is how we create maximum shareholder value. The improved conditions on the financial markets in 2009 helped us do this.

The Banking Code

The Dutch Banking Association (Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken, NVB) drew up the Banking Code in response to the report entitled ‘Restoring Trust’ (‘Naar herstel van vertrouwen’) that was published by the Advisory Committee on the Future of Banks (the ‘Maas Committee’). The aim of the Banking Code is to strengthen governance within banks, improve risk management and auditing and promote the implementation of sound remuneration policies. The Banking Code came into force on 1 January 2010. BinckBank has been making careful preparations for the introduction of the Banking Code over the last year. Our current conclusion is that we do not expect that BinckBank’s operations will deviate from the Banking Code in any major way, and we have already taken concrete steps towards its implementation. Among other things, the duties and responsibilities on the supervisory board and the executive board have been brought into line with the relevant provisions of the Banking Code.

Move to Eurocenter I

Since the acquisition of Alex Investment Bank at the end of 2007 BinckBank had been renting two offices in Amsterdam. At the time of the acquisition of Alex it was decided to respect the existing rental contracts and not incur any unnecessary costs by buying them out. In 2009 BinckBank decided to move to a new office location, and bought the Eurocenter I building near Amsterdam RAI Station. BinckBank will move to the new location in the second half of 2010.

Prospects for 2010

Our company’s results are highly dependent on our customers’ activity in the market. The volatility and direction of the market are important in this respect, so it is not possible for us to provide concrete expectations regarding our results for 2010. BinckBank will continue to focus on further growth of its customer base, both in the Netherlands and abroad, in order to achieve its ambition of becoming “the biggest online bank for investors in Europe”. We are on the right track towards this, and at the beginning of 2010 we raised our medium term targets.

Finally, I would like to thank to all our employees, customers and shareholders for their confidence in BinckBank.

Koen Beentjes,

Chairman of the executive board

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