E*TRADE
Company Information
About
The E*TRADE Company
E*TRADE
UK is the result of a vision shared by two different people on both
sides of the Atlantic. Both were - and are - investors. Both had
a vision of how the Internet could set them free to take control
of their finances.
On
July 11, 1983, a doctor in Michigan placed the first online trade
using E*TRADE Securities technology. What began with a single click
nearly 20 years ago is now a daily part of life for their customers
worldwide. Founded as a service bureau in 1982 by Bill Porter, the
early E*TRADE Securities provided online quote and trading services
to other firms. This led Bill to wonder why, as an individual investor,
he had to pay a broker hundreds of dollars for stock transactions.
With incredible foresight, he saw the solution at hand: someday,
everyone would own computers and invest through them with unprecedented
efficiency and control.
It
would take years for the world to catch up with Bill's vision. In
1992, E*TRADE Securities, Incorporated, one of the original all-electronic
brokerages, was born and began to offer online investing services
through America Online and CompuServe. Then, with the emergence
of the internet, E*TRADE Group, Inc. launched www.etrade.com in
1996, leading to an explosion in demand for the company's services.
In
1996, Bill handed the reins over to Christos M. Cotsakos. Christos
came to E*TRADE Group with more than 20 years of senior management
experience at Federal Express and A.C. Neilsen, where he served
as president, co-chief executive officer, and director. Under Christos's
leadership, the company shifted into high gear. From its humble
beginnings as a discount brokerage, the company has reinvented and
grown itself into a global leader in personal financial services
with branded Web Sites in eleven countries around the world.
Meanwhile,
in Britain, Hermann Hauser had been pioneering British IT innovation
since 1979. A co-founder of Acorn computers and designer for the
BBC Micro computer, he founded ESI in 1993. Hauser wanted to give
people access to share prices and data without a broker on their
backs to pressurise them. The Internet, still embryonic, was the
way to give people more power over their financial future. ESI became
the first Web site outside the USA to provide real-time equity prices
and share dealing facilities and soon became a prime destination
for UK investors. With the first gateway to execute online trades
via UK stockbrokers, it won the BT/Sunday Times Superhighway award
for 1996.
In 1998, ESI and E*TRADE Group founded E*TRADE UK with the aim of
building on this shared vision. E*TRADE UK launched its sharedealing
service in 1999 pioneering flat-rate charges. E*TRADE UK was acquired
by E*TRADE Group in January 2000.
E*TRADE
Securities Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial
Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange.
E*TRADE
Securities
42nd Floor
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5AA
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