The plan of Postfinance to sell mortgages has so far been blocked. Now it seems to have found a new tactic to pave the way for its strategic goal.
Postfinance, the financial-service unit of the Swiss Post company, has long harbored plans to sell mortgages because it needed to find ways to put to work the cheap assets put at its disposal by savers. The government-owned company publicly demanded the license to do so before it even received its banking license in 2012 – unsuccessfully.
Now, the company seems to have found a solution to its problem. Hansruedi Koeng, the head of Postfinance, called an initial public offering an «intelligent solution» for the business, in an interview with «NZZ am Sonntag».
Smart Move
Selling the business would indeed seem a smart move to counter the main argument of the opponents for Postfinance mortgages: regional banks so far successfully blocked the entry of the state-owned business in the real estate market.
Koeng also said he wouldn't oppose a privatization of the company. Current legislation however has it that the Swiss Post has to retain at least 51 percent in the financial-services unit.
Discrimination
Should Postfinance be barred from selling mortgages, Koeng expects a loss of value through lower profits. Barring Postfinance from selling mortgages is discriminatory, according to Koeng, not least since the euro peg had been lifted.
Margins have come under pressure, not least so in the first quarter of 2016, Koeng said. In case of a Brexit, he expects write-downs to the tune of double-digit million-franc sums on investments.
