Switzerland’s biggest online bank has earned more money in 2019 – also thanks to the negative interest rate. Swissquote remains fairly upbeat about its business in coming months.
Gland-based Swissquote in 2019 increased operating revenues by 6.4 percent to 239.9 million Swiss francs ($250 million) compared with a year earlier – a new record for the online bank, it said in a statement on Tuesday. Higher personnel costs and depreciation meant that profit remained flat at 44.7 million francs.
The bank will propose shareholders to pay an unchanged dividend of 1 franc per share.
Growth in Europe and Asia
Trading volumes declined overall in 2019, despite the positive market environment. The number of trades dropped to 2.8 million from 3 million in 2018. Net fee and commission income therefore dropped by 6.6 percent to 92.9 million francs. The cryptocurrency business contributed 6.3 million francs to fee and commission income (down from 9.8 million a year earlier). Net e-forex income rose 19 percent to 85.5 million francs.
The net interest income rose 20.7 percent to 40.1 million francs. Swissquote introduced negative interest rates on cash amounts of more than 500,000 francs or euros.
Successful Integration of New Business
Assets under management increased by more than a third to 32.2 billion francs through a combination of net new money and the stock market development. Net new money increased by almost 50 percent to 4.6 billion, with organic growth adding to the boost from the integration of accounts of Internaxx.
The Internaxx integration also provided additional revenue of 10 million francs to Swissquote. The Swiss firm also launched its business in Singapore (Swissquote Pte.) and was able to acquire the first asset managers and institutional clients.
Strong Demand for New Accounts
Swissquote gave a surprisingly upbeat outlook for the current. The company reported a strong increase in trading volumes in the first quarter, «generated by extreme volatility on financial markets». For 2020, Swissquote is anticipating further growth in net revenues and profit of more than 10 percent. A more precise outlook is however difficult given current market uncertainties, the company said.
Swiss-quote is also experiencing a massive demand in account opening. Several thousand applications are received each week since the beginning of the year.
