Swissquote Group, Switzerland’s provider of online trading services, said it expects its operating revenue for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2022, to stay above 400 million Swiss francs (roughly $430 million).
This figure is lower by 15 percent when weighed against the CHF 472 million ($518 million) it booked in 2021.
The bank, based in Gland, western Switzerland, said its pre-tax profit for the year would likely come at CHF 185 million ($198 million), down -17 percent from a record of CHF 223 million ($245 million) the previous year.
“Swissquote confirms financial results in line with the guidance provided in August 2022. The diversified sources of revenues and a higher share of non-transaction based revenues have enabled Swissquote to navigate safely in a difficult market environment,” the broker said in a regulatory filing.
As of 31 December 2022, client assets reached CHF 52.2 billion, out of which CHF 7.7 billion in new money it attracted in 2022. With a capital ratio of 25.7 percent, Swissquote says it is well positioned to benefit from higher market interest rates.
Swissquote reported in August that its H1 revenues dropped by nearly a quarter from a year ago as clients’ interest in crypto trading stagnated. Swissquote blamed clients’ cautious trading even in higher-risk asset classes such as crypto assets.
Compared with the prior-year period, net fee and commission income declined in the first half by 6.7 percent to CHF 81.3 million. While moving from a rally in 2021 to a sharp slump in the last semester, net crypto-assets income dipped by 69.2 percent to CHF 19.5 million from CHF 63.2 million a year ago.
Other business highlights show that net trading income also dropped by 28.0 percent to CHF 30.7 million (CHF 42.6 million) and net eForex income declined by 13.7 percent to CHF 54.3 million (CHF 63.0 million).
We last reported about the group earlier this week when the Swiss bourse operator SIX Group’s Sanctions Commission fined it for violating rules on ad hoc publicity.
The sanction came because Swissquote published the ad hoc announcement on 16 June 2021 “Thanks to outstanding growth, Swissquote expects record half-year results”. The broker says this press release was sent to SIX Exchange Regulation as well as to the media in “a timely manner.” But, citing a technical issue, the mailing of the press release to the persons registered on the Swissquote portal was carried out a bit late on the same day.
After completing its investigation, the sanctions commission found that Swissquote’s violation of the rules on ad hoc publicity was not “as severe as SIX Exchange Regulation had assessed.” As a result, SER reduced the amount of the proposed fine from CHF 125,000 to CHF 75,000.
