Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Swissquote Bank (SWX:SQN), a Swiss online financial and trading service provider, said on Wednesday it expects to close 2016 with earnings of CHF 150 million, which is up by an annual 2.5%, or much lower than the expected growth rate of 10%.
In 2015, Swissquote Bank posted a profit of nearly CHF 2.1 million (-91% y/y) on the back of net revenue of more than CHF 146.6 million (+0.8% y/y). Its performance was strongly affected by the negatively affected of the Swiss National Bank’s decision in mid-January 2015 to unpeg the Swiss franc (CHF) from the Euro (EUR).
Despite not meeting the expectations, the broker performed well and expects to post a pre-tax profit margin of around 15% this year.
Swissquote Bank had more than 2,300 new customers added to its client base in the July-October period, or the first four months of second part of the year. In addition, the total amount of client assets deposited with the bank grew by more than CHF 1.0 billion in the past four months.
For the first six months of 2016 the broker expected to post earnings of some CHF 160 million, but the markets turned quite dynamic and trader activity fell, mainly due to the Brexit vote, the US presidential elections and the political situation in Turkey.
The bank tried to benefit from key market events this year and launched several trading opportunities in an attempt to attract investors to be more. Prior to the US elections, it launched baskets with forex instruments that it expected to be most highly affected if either of the two main presidential candidates (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump) were elected. It also made available to clients a predictive analytics tool to facilitate their trading choices concerning instruments potentially affected by the outcomes of the US elections.
In addition, inspired by the boom of Pokemon GO game, the bank launched Swissquote GO, a location-based mobile financial game in which players can win several hundred shares of companies traded on the Swiss Market Index (SMI) by visiting 20 sites where they are hidden.
Since Swissquote offers various financial services, the e-banking sector’s strong performance and growth in H1 and H2 somewhat compensates for the slowdown in other markets.
“The demand for innovative digital banking solutions is very strong and Swissquote is very well-placed in the are with advanced technology,” Swissquote Bank CEO Marc Burki said.
Swissquote Bank provides online trading, analysis, and financial and information services. The Swissquote Group is headquartered in Switzerland and holds a bank license issued by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The company has more than 200,000 retail and institutional clients serviced through its offices in Dubai, London, Malta and Hong Kong.
