Year 2021

At CHF 247.5 million (CHF 211.7 million), operating expenses were 16.9 percent higher than in the previous year, due mainly to the rise in payroll and related expenses as well as marketing expenses. In 2021, Swissquote launched a set of ambitious initiatives to strengthen its brand awareness outside of Switzerland, such as the 3-year sponsorship of the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League. At the end of 2021, Swissquote had a workforce of 952 employees (+18.3 percent).

The combination of revenues and expenses brought a 111.4 percent increase in operating profit to CHF 223.3 million (CHF 105.6 million), and resulted in an operating profit margin of 47.3 percent (30.9 percent) for 2021. Net profit more than doubled year-on-year to CHF 193.1 million (CHF 91.0 million). This is the result of strong organic growth and a diversified and innovative product offering, which enabled Swissquote to capture the operational leverage provided by its technology.

Swissquote successfully combined top profitability and organic growth with a strong capital ratio of 26.2 percent. As of the end of 2021, Swissquote exhibits a solid and well-capitalised balance sheet of CHF 9053.8 million. Total equity increased by 39.8 percent to CHF 615.5 million (CHF 440.2 million). The Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting of 6 May 2022 that the dividend be increased by 46.7 percent from CHF 1.50 to CHF 2.20 per share.

The net new money inflow continued to increase to CHF 9.6 billion in 2021 (CHF 5.3 billion). This trend is attributable to Swissquote’s international expansion (52% of the net new monies were related to customers resident abroad), as well as to its unique positioning for mass affluent customers. Client assets rose by 40.5 percent to CHF 55.9 billion (CHF 39.8 billion) thanks to net new money inflow, but also to the positive market environment. Per customer, this equates to a healthy average deposit in excess of CHF 110,000. The total number of accounts reached 487,847 (+18.9 percent) by the end of 2021.

With the acquisition of Keytrade Bank Luxembourg, Swissquote has reinforced its positioning in the Benelux area as a market leader in online trading and investing. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022 and will bring in somewhat more than 8,200 new customers and EUR 1.7 billion in client assets. With this move, Swissquote confirms its ambitious expansion strategy in Europe and more generally outside of Switzerland.

During the year, Swissquote intensified and further structured its dialogue with shareholders, giving it the opportunity to discuss topics such as corporate governance, compensation and sustainability. All the points raised have been reviewed and evaluated. On this basis, disclosures have been improved and a number of decisions aimed at enhancing the company’s framework and policies have been made.

After reviewing all the comments received on the Executive Management’s Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP), the Board of Directors decided to retain the stock option plan. The Board of Directors believes that it is an adequate incentive for a growth company to work towards further value creation. This applies as long as the strike price is above the market value of the underlying at the time of allocation. Nevertheless, in order to better meet the expectations of our investors, the vesting period of stock options granted to Executive Management will be harmonized to three years from 2022 onwards. Furthermore, caps to the LTIP were adopted.

Regarding the Short Term Incentive Plan (STIP) of the Executive Management, the adjustments introduced in the previous Remuneration Report in order to increase transparency with regard to the achievement of the objectives set to the Executive Management, have been well received by investors. In the 2021 Remuneration Report, transparency has been further increased by providing the complete list of objectives, the weighting of these objectives and the achievement per objective and category of objectives.

We greatly appreciated the active participation of our shareholders and the time they have devoted. We would like to maintain and further expand this exchange in the future.

While last year was marked by the release of our first Sustainability Report, the current year was used to carry out gap analyses and implement additional measures with the aim of attaining Swissquote’s sustainability goals. For 2022, the Board of Directors has decided to give a higher weighting (15 percent) to ESG as part of the objectives set to the Executive Management. This Board’s decision confirms the importance of ESG for Swissquote.

In general, the COVID-19 pandemic has not negatively impacted Swissquote. Although greater customer interest and higher trading volumes led to an increase in operating income and operating profit, the Board considers this positive impact to have been marginal. No public subsidies, redundancies or short-time work/exemption schemes (furlough) were required in 2021. We have always given the utmost priority to the safety and well-being of our employees, as well as to ensuring the highest level of IT security required for home-working.

During the two first months of 2022, customer growth continued its strong trend with CHF 1.4 billion of net new monies. Swissquote’s growth story will be able to offset the difficult market environment and, despite the current geopolitical uncertainty, Swissquote expects to replicate its very successful year 2021. In 2022, operating income is expected at CHF 475 million (+0.7%) and operating profit at CHF 225 million (+0.7%).

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Executive Management, we would like to thank our clients, who, by actively using our platform and providing a wide spectrum of informed feedback, are making a key contribution to Swissquote’s business success and therefore its long-term solidity and growth. We attach great importance to their suggestions and requests, as well as their criticism, all of which help to drive us forward. Furthermore, in this exceptional year, we would like to thank our shareholders for the trust they place in us, and all employees for their personal commitment and willingness to push the boundaries time after time. And finally, we also owe a debt of gratitude to our cooperation partners for their unfailing expertise and support in helping us to grow our business.