A resurgence in risk taking among investors helped the Swiss trading bank Swissquote attract billions in new client monies, pushing its depot assets above the 20 billion Swiss-franc-mark in the first half of the year.
The 20-billion-franc level was breached by Swissquote for the first time ever as investor flows rose almost 27 percent to 21.2 billion francs , with net new money reaching 1.5 billion francs, the Gland-based online-bank reported Tuesday.
Swissquote also reported an increase in customer trading activity, which helped push commission yields 12 percent higher to almost 39 million francs. The eForex yield rose 16.5 percent to 32.6 million francs, while the trading yield (Currency trading excl. eForex) and income from its interest rate business also improved in the six months through June.
Extra Staff
The financial institute's total earnings for the period gained 16.5 percent to 90.5 million francs, with net income up almost 61 percent on the year to 17.9 million francs. At the same time Swissquote's operating costs edged up 7.6 percent to 67.7 million francs due to ongoing investment in technology, marketing and personnel, whose numbers rose by 30 to 570.
The bank's core capital ratio eased back 0.7 percent to 20.5 percent. Looking ahead, Swissquote expects a similar positive business development for the second half of 2017.
