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Thriving PostFinance
PostFinance has been successful in the first semester of 2012. Profit amounted to CHF 296 million. Swiss Post’s financial institute gained 63,000 new customers who opened 134,000 new accounts. The customer assets it manages amounted to CHF 102 billion. In a difficult context, PostFinance created 42 new full-time jobs. Preparatory work for assigning PostFinance under the FINMA’s supervision is going as planned.
PostFinance generated a profit of CHF 296 million in the first semester of 2012. This was 9.5 percent lower compared to the same period of the previous year (CHF 327 million). This result was primarily due to the historically low interest rates on the financial markets. PostFinance sometimes deposits customer’s money interest-free at the Swiss National Bank, which heavily pressures the interest margin. The customer assets under management amounted to CHF 102 billion at the end of June.
New postal accounts and jobs
In the first semester of this year, PostFinance opened 134,000 new accounts and gained 63,000 new customers. All together, the financial institute had a total of over 2.85 million customers with almost 4.5 million accounts by the end of June. Half of the customers manage their finances electronically with e-finance: 1.4 million users have made PostFinance the number one in Swiss online banking. PostFinance once more increased the amount of full-time jobs between January and June 2012 – this time by 42 positions to 3,464.
On the way to PostFinance Ltd
The Swiss parliament had adopted a new Postal Organisation Act at the end of 2010. Amongst other things, it contains PostFinance’s transformation into a public limited company as well as assigning it under the supervision of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The start as a public limited company is planned for the next year. The preparatory works are currently in progress. PostFinance will have a Board of Directors and its own internal auditing department. PostFinance AG will be provided with equity in accordance with the financial market requirements. The FINMA will determine its amount and the time of provision as part of the authorisation process.
| PostFinance key figures | Q2/2012 | Q2/2011 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company profit EBT (CHF million) including associated companies (SIC, SECB) |
296 | 327 | 591 |
| Operating income (CHF million) - Net interest income after losses - Income from the commission and service business - Income from the trade business |
745 533 146 66 |
760 541 147 69 |
1,474 1,024 301 147 |
| Operating expenses (CHF million) - HR expenses - Material expenses |
446 239 207 |
424 225 199 |
872 446 426 |
| Amount of customers (reporting date, in thousands) | 2,874 | 2,738 | 2,811 |
| Amount of customer accounts (reporting date, in thousands) | 4,470 | 4,182 | 4,336 |
| Customer assets (annual average, CHF million) | 102,062 | 89,878 | 92,225 |
| Funds and securities (reporting date, CHF million) | 4,367 | 3,979 | 3,998 |
| Mortgages from private customers (reporting date, CHF million) | 3,918 | 3,444 | 3,684 |
| Loans to business customers (reporting date, CHF million) | 6,216 | 6,139 | 6,842 |
| E-finance users (reporting date, in thousands) | 1,415 | 1,280 | 1,350 |
| Staff (full-time positions, annual average) | 3,464 | 3,395 | 3,422 |
| Millions of processed transactions (deadline, accumulated) | 458 | 446 | 907 |
Swiss Post’s half-yearly result will be published on 30 August 2012.
