For 2018, Swissquote is expecting net revenues and earnings to continue growing by approximately 10 percent.

Revenues up by 25%

Net revenues of CHF 187.8 million (CHF 150.2 million) were once again impacted by negative interest rates (-CHF 7.5 million). All four divisions contributed to the exceptional result. Thanks to a year-on-year increase in the number of transactions by 310,000 to 2.6 million, net fee & commission income grew by 22.5 percent to CHF 85.2 million (CHF 69.5 million). The number of transactions per customer per year remained stable at 11.0. However, other factors that contributed to the pleasing results included the growing importance of robo-advisory services (ePrivate Banking), successful trading in derivative products via Swiss DOTS, and trading in cryptocurrencies.

eForex income increased by 26.2 percent to CHF 66.7 million (CHF 52.8 million).
The strong growth is explained by the significant increase in new clients (+29.0 percent) and the significant increase in client assets belonging to eForex clients (+45.5 percent). Net trading income (currency trading excluding eForex) grew by 32.7 percent to CHF 22.3 million (CHF 16.8 million). Net interest income increased by 27.8 percent to CHF 19.7 million (CHF 15.4 million) owing to growth in Lombard loans issued and steadily rising US short-term
interest rates.

Near doubling of earnings

At CHF 142.0 million (CHF 127.0 million), operating expenses were 11.8 percent higher in 2017 than in the previous year. The increase in expenses was mainly due to continuing heavy investment in technology, marketing, and staff, whose numbers grew by 43 to 593. While operating expenses increased by CHF 14.9 million, net revenues rose by CHF 37.5 million. In line with this trend of expenses and revenues, all earnings figures rose sharply: pre-tax profit jumped
by 97.3 percent to CHF 45.8 million (CHF 23.2 million), the pre-tax profit margin increased to 24.4 percent (15.4 percent), net profit surged by 88.8 percent to CHF 39.2 million (CHF 20.8 million) and the net profit margin climbed to 20.9 percent (13.8 percent). The capital ratio (CET 1) stood at 26.1 percent (24.5 percent). This means that Swissquote remains one of Switzerland’s best-financed banks. Total Equity amounted to CHF 295.1 million
(CHF 280.8 million).

Record level of client assets

2017 also saw client assets increase by a substantial 29.9 percent to CHF 24.1 billion (CHF 18.6 billion). The net new money inflow amounted to CHF 2.7 billion. As at the end of 2017, assets of CHF 23.0 billion (+31.6 percent) were held in trading accounts, CHF 600.6 million (-20.8 percent) in saving accounts, CHF 203.1 million (+75.2 percent) in Robo-Advisory accounts and CHF 328.9 million (+45.5 percent) in eForex accounts.