Swissquote (SWX: SQN), the online leader in banking service provider has continued with the strong business momentum in the first half of 2018. The strong financial result in the first half which reached records level was majorly driven by large numbers of new account opening in the cryptocurrency segment. 

In the first half of 2018, the operating revenue rose by 30 per cent year-on-year, coming in at CHF 118 million (USD $120 million). The net revenue during the period registered a notable increase of 21 per cent from the half of 2017, at CHF 112.8 million. The growth was dragged down due to two factors, first was  “unrealized fair value” item which resulted in the company losing CHF 1 million and secondly, due to “negative interest rates”, which cost the firm CHF 4.2 million.

The net profits during the six months period rose by 43.9 per cent to CHF 25.7 million, which is a record for the company. The eForex segment income posted a strong growth of 7.5 per cent, reaching a record high of CHF 35.1 million attributed to a 20.2 per cent rise in the trading volume to $594.4 billion. The Net trading income increased by 13.4 per cent to CHF 11.7 million based on currency trading and it excludes eForex trading income. Net fee and commission income increased by 42.8 per cent to CHF 55.6 million on a year-on-year basis. The firm’s cryptocurrency business fetched a total income of CHF 8 million during the period.

On the expenses part, the operating expenses for the company registered at CHF 82 million in the first half of the year which is 21.2 per cent higher than the previous year. The rise was largely driven by the increase in investment in technology, marketing and personnel. However, the company expects, the increase will be modest in the second half of the year. 

The company also achieved CHF 25.5 billion marks in client’s asset holding for the period ending on June 30, 2018, an increase of 20.6 per cent in client assets. During the period, the total number of clients also increased by 6.3 per cent to 322,032.

Swissquote issued a statement of the result mentioning exceptional performance in all of its four business unit. The company stated that the Cryptocurrencies, ICOs and blockchain technology will continue to be an important theme. For the whole year, Swissquote is expecting growth for both revenues and profit at a range of 10 per cent to 15 per cent. The company also said that the Robo-Advisory platform has been completely overhauled and will see cryptocurrencies to be added to the investment universe of Swissquote Robo-Advisory as a new asset class.

Karthik Subramanian

Karthik Subramanian has been a professional trader and fund manager over the last 18 years. He is basically a software developer who made the transition to financial domain around 18 years back as the attractiveness of the financial markets proved too much for him. He lives in Chennai in India along with his wife and son. He began his career as a software developer in 1999 and then gradually moved into the financial industry as he began trading stocks in his pastime. He then moved into the financial markets full time and then shifted his focus to the FX markets due to the liquid nature of these markets. Since then, he has been trading FX diligently and his favourite pair are the EURUSD and EURJPY. Over the last couple of years, he has found blockchain to be of high interest and considering his background in software and finance, he has since assembled a team of highly talented developers who have since worked on a variety of projects like crypto exchanges and blockchain architecturing. Now, he balances his time between trading and commenting on both the FX and crypto markets. He has worked with many publications including FX Street and Finance Magnates, which has helped him gain experience and also recognition across the industry. He loves to write and this passion has helped him to reach out across the FX and crypto industry. Right now, he works on his pet projects in the FX and crypto industry and spends his time writing and managing his blockchain team and helping it to reach higher.