In the first half of 2016, the impact of the cooperation between FX brokerage Swissquote Group Holding SA (SWX:SQN) and PostFinance could be seen in concrete figures for the first time. Following the transfer of PostFinance clients, the number of accounts with Swissquote increased by 32.3% to 300,691 and assets under custody grew by 39.3% to CHF 16.1 billion.
Purely organic growth in net new monies reached a record CHF 812.2 milion in the first half. Net revenues of CHF 75.4 million showed a slight YoY increase (+1.9%), pre-tax profit came to CHF 12.6 million (+7.3%) and net profit to CHF 11.1 million (+204.6%). Swissquote is reiterating its growth projection of around 10% for full year 2016.
Strong growth potential
The transfer of more than 60,000 client accounts from PostFinance to Swissquote Bank has been successfully completed on May 17, 2016. PostFinance clients value and are actively using the new platform. With its range of white label technology and brokerage products, Swissquote said it aims to continue growing in all sectors by delivering customized solutions for selected partners.
The Swiss DOTS platform also made further encouraging headway: 103,356 trades have been concluded via the derivatives platform (+10.3%) in the first half. On average, this is the equivalent of 34.5% of comparable leveraged products traded on SIX Structured Products Exchange. The platform, which already offers leveraged products from four prominent issuers, is to be expanded over the next few months.
ePrivate Banking also looks to be on track for substantial growth. The significant increase witnessed in the first half is proof positive of the strong demand for digital asset management solutions. Thanks to Swissquote, assets under custody are expected to cross the CHF 100 million mark in 2016 for the first time.