PostFinance rewards customers as profits rise by 28%
PostFinance will reward its customers with a CHF 20.10 gift, after revealing company profit rose by 28% during 2010. The banking arm of Swiss Post said profit reached CHF 575m (EUR 451m), up CHF 126m (EUR 98.7m) on the previous year, in what was described as an “excellent result”.
It will reward customers who have gained credit interest on one or more of its Deposito accounts during 2010 with a CHF 20.10 gift per account.
The gift will be credited to each account in March, PostFinance confirmed.
A rise in profit was achieved “despite the difficulties on the financial markets”, PostFinance said, whilst highlighting good interest income as a key factor behind the results, along with cost discipline.
“Last year, PostFinance increased its net interest income after write downs to CHF 1.04bn (previous year: CHF 905m). This was mainly due to higher customer deposits, lower interest expenses and its long-term prudent investment strategy,” a statement said.
The company described 2010 as a “good year”, with the business acquiring 119,000 new customers and opening 198,000 new accounts.
PostFinance now manages almost 4.1m customer accounts. Customer deposits rose by CHF 11bn (EUR 8.6bn) – equating to a rise of 15%. In total, customer deposits stood at CHF 84bn (EUR 65.8bn).
For the year 2010, PostFinance created 223 new jobs. Full time employee numbers now stands at 3,265 – meaning that since its creation, the company’s staff numbers has doubled.
Monies in Deposito accounts rose from CHF 20bn (EUR 15.7bn) to CHF 26bn (EUR 20.4bn) – up 30% on the previous year.
PostFinance said “this CHF 6bn accounts for about half the total new customer deposits received last year”.
Funds in the investment sub-market also rose, from CHF 21bn (EUR 16.5bn) to CHF 23bn (18bn) – up 10%.
PostFinance also confirmed that it will be transformed into a public limited company, subject to supervision by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
This followed the Swiss Parliament passing a new Postal Organization Act in December.
It is now down to the Federal Council to decide when the transition will take place.
The company added that “preparatory work for creating the new legal form is currently underway”. PostFinance will have a Board of Directors and its own internal auditors.
A statement said: “PostFinance AG will be provided with equity in line with the requirements of financial market law. FINMA will decide how much equity is to be provided, and when.
“In accordance with banking law, PostFinance requires approval for FINMA supervision. This will be sought from FINMA during the current year.
“Even when this approval has been granted, PostFinance will not be allowed to grant loans or mortgages under its own name.”
Swiss Post will publish its annual results at the end of March.
