Swiss banking group Swissquote has reported its first-half financial results for 2019, ending June 30, 2019, revealing a slight drop across its key financial metrics on a year-on-year comparison.
Net revenues for the Swiss bank came in at CHF 112.2 million ($115.1 million) in the first six months of 2019. When weighing this against the same period of 2018, which had net revenues of CHF 112.8 million, it is lower by 0.5 percent.
Operating revenues for the first half was CHF 117.2 million, down by 0.7 percent from the CHF 118.0 million net revenues achieved in the first half of 2018. However, H1 of 2019’s result was higher by almost ten percent from the second half of last year.
Net fee & commission income was CHF 45.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. This represents a fall of 17.9 percent from the CHF 55.6 million income reported in H1 of 2018.
According to the report, this drop in trading was largely driven by a significant year-on-year drop in its cryptocurrency business, as well as a weak start to trading in the first few months of the year.
eFX income shows strength in H1 of 2019
However, despite this week start in trading, net electronic foreign Exchange (eForex) income was higher by 12.5 percent, increasing from CHF 35.1 million in the first half of last year, up to CHF 39.5 million.
This uptick was thanks to a 33.8 percent increase in assets held in eForex accounts, which now sits at CHF 439.8 million. Furthermore, margins were generally improved during the period.
Net trading income, which includes currency trading but excludes eForex, fell on a year-on-year comparison by 6.8 percent from CHF 11.7 million in H1 of 2018 down to CHF 10.9 million in the most recent period.
For Swissquote, the total number of accounts rose by 17,140, or 5.3 percent, to reach a record high of 339,172 accounts. Breaking this down, 264,210 are trading accounts, which represents a 5.8 percent growth. From this total, 51,974 are eForex accounts, which has increased by 20.9 percent.
Swissquote expects 5-10% in net revenues for 2019
Looking ahead, for the whole 2019 year, Swissquote still expects to achieve a 5 to 10 percent growth in net revenues, as its key strategic projects - Internaxx and Singapore - continue to show encouraging results. The Swiss bank has also increased its pre-tax profit forecast to CHF 48 million, up from CHF 44 million.
