Oakville, ON (August. 14, 2009): www.surviscor.com – TD Waterhouse is leading the charge in online discount brokerage services, according to the recently released Surviscor Online Discount Brokerage scorCard. TD Waterhouse (57.29) managed to narrowly sneak by five time winner Credential Direct (57.08). Close behind was BMO InvestorLine (55.91) and RBC Direct Investing (55.59), while CIBC Investor’s Edge ranked the lowest of the ‘big six’ bank owned firms. Independent firm Questrade had the lowest cost of services despite an 8th place finish in the review.
Surviscor’s Online Discount Brokerage scorCard is a comprehensive, impartial audit of online features and functionality that scores each firm on a 100pt scale. The Summer 2009 analysis introduced a more robust scorCard with improved categories and the addition of more sub-categories bringing the total to thirty-one. “Our improved scorCard puts us at the top of online research firms in North America” said Mr. LaCoste, President of Surviscor. “We offer the most comprehensive online brokerage and banking analysis in North America and soon will be able to allow online consumers the ability to reference our data of over 2000 questions to make educated account decisions based on their own set of preferences and needs.” Surviscor has been conducting the review for over three years.
TD Waterhouse captured the top spot in four of the seven main categories including ‘Website Design’, ‘Market Intelligence’, ‘Website Transactions’ and ‘Online Resources’ despite only six sub-category top scores. Credential Direct recorded seven sub-category wins, the most in the review, while attaining the top spot in the ‘Account Services’ category. BMO InvestorLine matched TD Waterhouse with six sub-category top scores and attained top spot in the all-important ‘Getting Started’ category which measured the public website features for existing and potential customers prior to actual login. RBC Direct Investing finished with four sub-category wins while Questrade finished with three and the top spot in the important ‘Cost of Services’ category.
Unlike past reviews, Surviscor named one winner for Best Online Investor Site. Surviscor focused on investors in Canada and looked at three types; the passive, the serious and the active. The former ‘trader’ review is under development. The issue with the trader profile is that although drives a major portion of the discount broker’s revenue, it represents a small portion of the Canadian online brokerage customer with few differentiators between competing firms.
For further information, contact Mr. LaCoste, President, Surviscor, (905)593-9364, info@surviscor.com, http://www.surviscor.com.