The Board of Directors of Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group announced strategic and organizational changes so as to strengthen the competitiveness of SIX and the Swiss financial centre in a changing business environment. SIX will focus on infrastructure services for its shareholders and the financial centre in securities, payments services and financial information. SIX will also increase its commitment to innovation by launching a CHF 50 million venture fund and establishing dedicated units to develop services to cover specific shareholder requirements.
Jos Dijsselhof, who will begin his role as CEO of SIX from the start of 2018, is an experienced manager and succeeds Urs Rüegsegger, who announced in May that he would step down.
In this realignment, SIX will focus consistently on infrastructure services for its shareholders and the financial centre in securities, payment services and financial information, which form the company’s core business. In future, the company will operate on the market exclusively under the “SIX” brand.
The main elements of this realignment are:
- The bundling of all activities in the securities business. The merger of exchange trading and post-trading areas into one organizational unit, with all securities trading services now provided from a single source.
- The reorganization of the payments business. SIX is creating a competence centre for operations, development and greater innovation in Swiss payments. This will include the infrastructure for interbank payments, for connections to the SEPA region and for card-based and mobile payments. For e-bills and direct debits, the collaboration with PostFinance to standardize and bundle infrastructure will be continued.
- The card business (merchant acquiring and international card processing) will be separated from the core organization and, with the aim of creating a leading European provider, further developed as part of a strategic partnership. Integration of the latest acquisitions (Aduno, VÖB- ZVD) will go ahead as planned.
- The consolidation of the strong market position of SIX in the data business, in particular in international reference data. SIX intends to utilize the resulting synergies to provide even better solutions to respond to the demand from banks for high quality at attractive conditions.
- The establishment of an innovation unit. Aside from bundling its own innovation projects, SIX will also establish a CHF 50 million venture fund to promote innovation within Switzerland’s financial centre. This new innovation unit will also develop services to cover specific shareholders requirements, which can then be hived off in collaboration with the relevant shareholders.
These measures are due to be fully implemented in the second quarter of 2018. Until then, SIX will continue to operate with its current organization and business models.
Romeo Lacher, Chairman of the Board of Directors, commented:
SIX has developed very successfully since its inception. What we are doing now is setting the course for SIX to continue to play a major part in assuring the quality and success of the Swiss financial centre.
The Board of Directors of SIX has appointed Jos Dijsselhof CEO with effect from 1 January 2018. He succeeds Urs Rüegsegger, who announced in May 2017 that he would be retiring. A Dutch citizen, Jos Dijsselhof, 52, holds degrees in computer science and Business Administration, and has a long track record in international management in the financial sector. He has previously held positions at ABN Amro Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and ANZ Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in various countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore. His most recent role was Chief Operating Officer (2014–June 2017) and CEO ad interim (2015) for Euronext in Amsterdam. During his career, Jos Dijsselhof has successfully headed several change projects and gained a wealth of experiencemin securities and financial data, as well as the payments business, so he is fully familiar with the business models of SIX.
Romeo Lacher, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said:
I am delighted to have found in Jos Dijsselhof an experienced manager for SIX with strong leadership qualities and an outstanding track record. I would also like to thank Urs Rüegsegger for his service and dedication. Under his leadership, SIX was able to lay a solid foundation, and I am confident that Jos Dijsselhof will build on this and successfully lead SIX to further successes.