Swissquote, a Swiss online bank, last year had a bumpy ride: the decision by the central bank to do away with the minimum exchange rate almost wiped out its profit, despite record earnings.

Swissquote had a profit of 2.1 million Swiss francs last year, compared with 23.5 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement today.

The Swiss National Bank on January 15, 2015 unexpectedly decided to lift the fixed minimum level of the euro to the franc. The systems of online trading banks such as Swissquote and Saxo struggled to cope with the pressure and proved unable to execute some trading orders.

Provision in First Quarter

Swissquote had to take an extraordinary provision of 25 million francs to cover the negative balances incurred by clients, a measure that caused a first-half loss of 10.6 million francs.

In stark contrast, Swissquote was able to report a record for operating revenues, which rose 4.2 percent to 151.6 million francs. Net fee and commission income, which increased 5.9 percent to 66.6 million, and net trading income, plus 25 percent to 16.4 million, contributed most to the surge in revenues.

Influx of New Money

The online bank also profited from an influx of net new monies, up 14 percent year-on-year to 1.23 billion, while assets under management increased 3.7 percent to 12 billion francs. The number of accounts rose 4.2 percent to 231,327, a total 171,170 of which are trading accounts.

The bank's eForex volumes decreased 14 percent to $873.6 billion on its decision to eliminate «higher-risk client relationships».

The Gland-based company proposes to pay an unchanged dividend of 0.6 francs per share.

High Expectations

In its outlook for the current year, Swissquote said it expects growth of more than 10 percent. «This optimistic assessment is based on the good operating results posted in 2015, on improvements achieved within the organization and at the foreign offices,» the bank said in the statement. Total assets are expected to grow strongly in 2016, influenced by the partnership with PostFinance.