Albert Maasland joins the Copenhagen-based online investment bank as the new European COO on 1 December 2007.

Albert Maasland joins Saxo Bank's Senior Executive Management from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was Global Head of Business Development, Global Markets E-Commerce, for the past two years.

Saxo Bank is already operating with an Asia-Pacific COO, Kevin Ashby, who is based in Singapore. As European COO, Albert Maasland will be the overall head and coordinator of all European, Middle East and US offices and regions. This means that CEO of Saxo Bank Switzerland, Søren Mose, Executive Director Torben Kaaber in Copenhagen, Director Peter Klein in London as well as Director Kurt Carlsson in Marbella will report to Albert Maasland.

"We are very pleased that Albert has accepted the position as European COO. He will be based in Copenhagen, but spend a lot of time in our offices around Europe," says Lars Seier Christensen, CEO of Saxo Bank.

Maasland spent 11 years at Chase Manhattan Bank where he had a number of Sales Management roles in Transaction Banking before taking over as Head of FX Sales from 1989-94, a period during which Chase rose to become the No. 2 FX bank in the industry (from 14th). After Chase Manhattan, Maasland spent one year at HSBC before moving to Deutsche Bank in 1995. Maasland announced semi-retirement in 2000, and took a number of directorships including Executive Director of Cognotec and IIR Plc, before returning to full-time banking in 2005 at Standard Charterted.

"It is hard to overestimate the impact Saxo Bank is making in the financial services industry and its future growth potential - and I am keen to be part of that winning team. I am excited to be joining Saxo Bank and to helping reach their ambitious goals for the future," says Albert Maasland.

Kim Fournais who co-founded Saxo Bank with Lars Seier Christensen believes Albert Massland will be a great asset for the bank.

"Saxo Bank has build a world class Senior Executive Management team over the past 18 months and by bringing Albert on board to head all sales and service efforts in the broader European time zone, we have brought in one of the most experienced and successful players in our industry. We are confident that this is another important step towards fulfilling the ambitious goals of Saxo Bank," CEO Kim Fournais comments.