SIX Exchange Regulation AG (SER) announced the launch of an investigation against Swissquote Group Holding AG on Thursday for a possible violation of regulations around ad hoc publicity.
The Switzerland-headquartered brokerage alleged violation is related to the disclosure of 'price-sensitive' information.
Based on its preliminary findings, the exchange highlighted that there was sufficient indication of a possible violation of the regulations. But, the exchange did not provide any further information.
Technical Glitch
On the other hand, Swissquote issued a press release in response to the investigation. The company revealed that there was indeed a possible violation due to a technical glitch in sharing the half-year results via an ad hoc communication. The incident happened on 16 June 2021.
“Within that framework, Swissquote informed SIX Exchange Regulation as well as Swiss and international media in a timely manner, so that the market received the relevant information in due time before market opening. However, due to a technical issue, the mailing of the press release to the persons registered via the Swissquote portal was carried out only shortly before 10:00 CET on the said day,” Swissquote stated.
Solid Financials
Swissquote operates with a banking license from the financial regulator in Switzerland. In addition, it is regulated in Luxembourg. It offers trading services with forex , contracts for differences (CFDs) and cryptocurrencies and is one of the very few publicly-listed brokers.
Meanwhile, the platform reported excellent financials for 2021. Its operating revenue for the year jumped by 49 percent to CHF 479.6 million. Moreover, net revenues and pre-tax profit saw a sharp surge during the period.
The broker ended the year with more than 480,000 private and institutional clients. Furthermore, total customer assets held by the trading platform went over CHF 55 billion. The company is now expecting net revenues of CHF 475 million.
