Swiss bank Swissquote released its annual results for last year, confirming a strong growth trend for the company. The firm reports that its net revenues increased by 2.4 percent to CHF150.2 million ($148.3 million). The change comes amid increasing number of accounts at the Swiss brokerage.
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Clients of the company increased the assets under custody at the bank by 49 percent to CHF17.9 billion ($17.6 billion). The number of accounts also registers growth - 31 percent to 302,775.
Swissquote aims to maintain a pre-tax profit margin of 15 percent over the coming years as part of its ambitious plan for development into 2020.
Electronic FX Income Lower by 2.2%
Swissquote reports that the company’s eForex income decreased by 2.2 percent to CHF52.8 million ($52.2 million). Throughout last year, trading volumes decreased, but margins increased.
Overall, net fees and commissions increased by 4.4 percent to CHF69.5 million ($68.7 million) despite what Swissquote reports as “latently discernible reluctance” to trade on the part of clients. This part of the results of the company is driven by Swissquote’s Acquisition of PostFinance accounts which were transferred in the first half of the year.
Profits Back to Normal after SNB Setback
Swissquote’s net profits increased 900 percent to CHF 20.8 million ($20.5 million). At CHF127 million ($125.5 million) the expenses of Swissquote increased by 4.1 percent due to operational and marketing costs. The massive increase on a year-on-year basis is due to the company’s hit in the aftermath of the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) sudden removal of the Exchange rate floor in the EURCHF pair.
Pre-tax profits declined by 5.4 percent to CHF 23.2 million ($23 million) from the result last year that was stripped off the extraordinary provision due to the SNB event in January 2015.
Growth Strategy 2020
Swissquote is preparing to drive organic growth in the coming years via its technology and brokerage offering. The firm’s white label solution is expected to drive the company’s client numbers to over 400,000 by 2020.
