PostFinance

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  PostFinance AG
logo
PostFinance headquarters, Bern 2015.jpg
Country SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Seat Bern
legal form Corporation
IID 9000
BIC POFICHBEXXX
founding 1906
Website www.postfinance.ch
Business data 2019
Total assets 126 billion CHF
Employee 3245 (full-time positions)
management
Board of Directors Rolf Watter (Chairman of the Board of Directors)
Corporate management

Hansruedi Köng ( Management )

PostFinance is a subsidiary of the Swiss national post , which is active in the private and business customer business and as such is one of the largest Swiss financial institutions. The main area of ​​activity is national and international payment transactions . It also offers products and services in the areas of saving , investing , provisioning and financing . PostFinance has had a banking license since the end of June 2013 and is supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). In 2015, PostFinance was classified as systemically important in Switzerland by the Swiss National Bank and has to comply with special rules for own funds and liquidity and submit an emergency plan.

Companies

The public limited company under private law is wholly owned by Swiss Post. PostFinance plays an important role within the Post Group and makes an important contribution to Post's overall operating income. The balance sheet total at the end of 2019 was 126 billion Swiss francs, the net profit ( EBIT ) for the full year 2019 was 246 million francs. PostFinance looks after around 2.7 million customers and employs around 3643 people (corresponds to 3243 full-time positions).

Holdings

PostFinance, or Swiss Post, has a 26.666% stake in Twint , is a shareholder in tilbago and has been a shareholder in SIX since 2018 .

Legal basis

The Swiss Post Act and the Postal Ordinance form the legal basis for the activities of Swiss Post and PostFinance.

The basic supply of payment transaction services must be guaranteed throughout the country. Accordingly, all population groups in all regions must have adequate access to deposits, withdrawals and transfers. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) must ensure that this basic service is provided. For this purpose, Swiss Post submits an annual report to OFCOM on the performance of its mandate.

Elimination of the state guarantee

As a result of a revision of the Postal Organization Act in 2012, which also led to the conversion of PostFinance into a stock corporation, the federal state guarantee was revoked at the end of September 2017. This state guarantee has been a major reason for the increase in customer deposits in recent years. Between 2012 and 2017, customer deposits doubled from CHF 50 billion to over CHF 100 billion.

The deposit protection for savings that will apply to all Swiss banks and to PostFinance from October 1, 2017 , is only a very limited replacement for the previous comprehensive state guarantee. Not only is there an upper limit of CHF 100,000 per customer, but the Esisuisse Association's guarantee is only valid up to a total of CHF 6 billion for all participating institutions. According to one estimate, if PostFinance defaults without any further payments to other institutions, an average guarantee of only CHF 12,000 would be available per customer, because the 6 billion in the guarantee fund are nowhere near enough to cover the approximately 50 billion customer assets affected .

Field of activity

Postomat: PostFinance ATM that works with other bank cards in addition to the PostFinance Card . The bank in question defines whether there are any fees for withdrawing cash with a bank card at the Postomat.
User interface of PostFinance's own electronic banking e-finance (as of 2018)

PostFinance's main field of activity is traditionally and still today, national and international payment transactions . The other areas of activity are in the areas of saving, investing, provisioning and financing. The "Postcheck- und Giroververkehr" started operations as early as 1906 as part of the Swiss Post. With a market share of around 60 percent, PostFinance is the market leader in Swiss payment transactions and, with e-finance, PostFinance's online portal, the leader in electronic banking . The payment area includes the range of private accounts and the various related services. PostFinance had CHF 108 billion in customer deposits at the end of 2013, but only CHF 38 billion of this was in the form of deposits and investments, while the vast majority of this was in the form of credit balances in private and savings accounts.

PostFinance has had a banking license since the end of June 2013 and is monitored by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). For this purpose, it was transferred to a public limited company under private law owned by Swiss Post.

Investing includes our own investment products and those offered in cooperation with other banks. Its own investment products include medium-term notes and investment funds . PostFinance also offers other investment funds in collaboration with UBS . PostFinance also offers an online platform for securities trading ( e-trading ) in collaboration with Swissquote . Swissquote acts as a trading platform for PostFinance and processes the stock market orders placed by its customers in e-trading. Based on the securities dealer license that PostFinance received together with the banking license, it is a customer trader and custodian for its around 60,000 e-trading customers. In 2020, PostFinance further expanded its investment range and launched four new digital investment products. It thus offers its clients a selection of attractive investment products.

In the area of ​​pensions, PostFinance offers a 2nd pillar vested benefits account, a pillar 3a retirement account and various life insurance options in cooperation with AXA Winterthur Life .

Financing is the youngest of PostFinance's four areas of activity. Since May 2003, PostFinance has also been offering mortgages in cooperation with various partners . Since it is prohibited under the Postal Organization Act from granting mortgages and loans to third parties on its own, PostFinance is cooperating with the Munich Hypothekenbank and Valiant Bank in the area of ​​financing . The loans and mortgages are not granted by PostFinance itself, but by the two partners, who also keep them on their balance sheets and bear the credit risk. PostFinance pays its partners a risk premium for this. In the crowdlending sector , PostFinance entered into a partnership with the Cembra Money Bank in 2018 with its subsidiary Lendico . In 2018 it was also announced that PostFinance would take FINMA to the Federal Supreme Court . With Valuu, PostFinance launched the first fully digital mortgage brokerage platform in 2019. Valuu is the first platform that enables the entire end-to-end and digital financing process, including the online conclusion of the mortgage. This enables easy access to the right mortgage from various providers - be it for a new purchase or replacement.

Company data

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Balance sheet total (in billion CHF) 43.1 44.2 47.3 52.1 56.2 67.2 80.3 89.3 104 115 115 114.5 119.5 120.8 118.2 126.0
Client money (in billion CHF) 32.8 35.7 38.2 40.6 43.7 58 75 84 95 103 108 114.9 119.4 119.8 118.9 119.1
 of which in deposit and investment form (in billion CHF) 7.6 9.7 11.2 13.1 14.7 17.7 23.9 29.3 33 37 38 k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A.
Net profit ( EBIT , in CHF million) 243 278 312 246 318 229 441 571 591 625 719 575 575 543 229 226
Headcount (full-time positions; annual average) 2'148 2,246 2,390 2,526 2,709 2,889 3,042 3,265 3,425 3,473 3,432 3,571 3,599 3,474 3,325 3,243
Number of customer accounts (in thousands) 2,746 2,879 3'008 3,154 3,335 3,646 3,881 4,079 4,211 4,520 4,628 4,835 4,845 4,809 4,503 4,401

Core banking system

Postfinance will switch to the core banking system of the Indian provider Tata Consultancy Services over the Easter weekend of 2018 . For corporate customers, the changeover means adapting payment transactions to a new data format for the exchange of payment data in accordance with the ISO 20022 standard .

Others

PostFinance is a member of the Swiss Payments Council . The PostFinance hotline has been using speaker authentication since December 2018 to recognize customers. In this regard, PostFinance was awarded a negative prize at the Big Brother Awards 2019 .

criticism

WikiLeaks affair

In connection with the publication of cables from US embassies by WikiLeaks , PostFinance closed an account for Julian Assange on December 6, 2010 on the grounds that he had given a wrong place of residence in Switzerland and that he was not domiciled in Switzerland, something for foreign customers outside the bordering countries is a prerequisite for a business relationship. As a result, the postfinance.ch website was temporarily paralyzed by a denial-of-service attack as part of Operation Payback . From the political side, PostFinance has been criticized for privacy concerns. The judiciary checks whether PostFinance has violated postal secrecy when the business relationship is terminated and the reasons are given by actively communicating with the outside world. The Federal Prosecutor's Office initiated a preliminary investigation that has not yet been completed. Independently of this investigation, the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, as the monitoring authority of the Post, examined how the Post informed about the closure and came to the conclusion that the postal secrecy had not been breached.

Money laundering process / acquittal

In April 2011, Swiss Post was fined 250,000 francs for money laundering . The court accused PostFinance of failing to investigate a large cash payment of over 4.6 million francs to an investment company. Swiss Post does not have any corresponding regulations, which is an organizational deficiency. The court saw it as proven that the money was of unclean origin. Swiss Post denies that it has no regulations and that its employees acted correctly. She announced her appointment . In the second instance there was an acquittal, which was confirmed by the federal court.

See also

Web links

Commons : PostFinance  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entry in the bank master of Swiss Interbank Clearing
  2. ↑ https://www.postfinance.ch/content/dam/pfch/doc/ueber_uns/report2019_info_de.pdf
  3. ↑ a b Group structure of the Post
  4. ↑ Michael Ferber: SNB classifies Postfinance as systemically relevant. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from September 1, 2015
  5. ↑ Swiss Post: Associated companies and joint ventures. December 31, 2018, accessed February 12, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b investments. PostFinance AG current investments.
  7. ↑ Postfinance joins SIX. In: handelszeitung.ch , March 8, 2018, accessed on March 8, 2018.
  8. ^ Postal law
  9. ↑ Postal Ordinance
  10. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Federal Office of Communication@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bakom.admin.ch
  11. ^ A b Albert Steck: Postfinance loses state guarantee and status as a model boy. NZZ on Sunday, September 2, 2017. Retrieved on September 3, 2017
  12. ↑ Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: Regulatory Consistency Assessment Program (RCAP) Assessment of Basel III LCR regulations - Switzerland . 2017, p. 12 ( bis.org [PDF]).
  13. ↑ FINMA press release
  14. ^ Daniel Imwinkelried: Postfinance and Cembra join forces in the lending business. In: nzz.ch . March 28, 2018, accessed December 3, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Sven Millischer: Postfinance pulls Finma before federal court. In: handelszeitung.ch . May 8, 2018, accessed December 3, 2018 .
  16. ↑ How much Postfinance is paying for your new banking software, handelszeitung.ch , January 29, 2018, accessed on March 19, 2018.
  17. ↑ Swiss Payments Council (SPC) In: six-group.com , accessed on October 18, 2018.
  18. ^ Postfinance: With Israeli technology against account theft. In: finews.ch . December 19, 2018, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  19. ↑ The winners of the Big Brother Awards 2019. In: bigbrotherawards.ch. Accessed August 31, 2019 .
  20. ↑ WikiLeaks: PostFinance terminates business relationship with Assange ( memento of April 26, 2011 on WebCite ) Media release of December 6, 2010
  21. ^ Postfinance: "Assange opened his account personally" ( memento of November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) in: Swiss television of December 8, 2010
  22. ↑ Postfinance website is flooded in: NZZ Online of December 7, 2010
  23. ↑ PayPal, PostFinance Hit by DoS Attacks, Counter-Attack in Progress in: eweek.com from December 6, 2010
  24. ^ After the hackers come the judges ( Memento from December 13, 2010 on WebCite ) in: SonntagsZeitung from December 12, 2010
  25. ↑ PostFinance: No breach of postal secrecy when Assange's account is closed in: Swissinfo of March 9, 2011
  26. ↑ Postfinance convicted of money laundering in: NZZ Online of April 21, 2011
  27. ^ Acquittal for the Post in the case of Solothurn money laundering. In: sda, October 26, 2016.

Coordinates: 46 ° 57 '25.4 "  N , 7 ° 28' 4.5"  E ; CH1903:  602229  /  200664