Strategic measures are having an impact
The new SpeedUp strategy is having an impact: in 2021, PostFinance managed to partially offset the significant decline in profit seen in recent years. It has also enhanced its range of digital solutions with the new PostFinance App, the Smart and SmartPlus banking packages and Yuh. In 2022, PostFinance will focus even more intensively on corporate responsibility, will gradually reduce its CO2 footprint and, as part of Swiss Post, will become carbon neutral by 2040.
Hansruedi Köng
CEO PostFinance AG
Hansruedi Köng, how was the result in the past financial year?
We posted a profit of 223 million francs in 2021. That equates to 94 million francs – or around 73 percent – more than in the previous year. Measured against our equity capital of 6.3 billion francs, however, the return is still comparatively low.
How do you explain this improvement?
We’ve worked hard on our positioning as an investment bank over recent years. We’ve developed competencies, extended our product range and launched new, digital investment solutions. By adopting this approach and thanks to the newly introduced banking package fees, we achieved a significant improvement in our result from commission business and services last year. Trading portfolio assets also performed well, while personnel expenses were higher due to a rise in employer contribution reserves. Interest operations remain under pressure. Although we managed to increase interest income by stepping up activities on the interbank money market and thanks to higher customer asset fees and the reversal of impairments on bonds, net interest income in our core business continued to decline. Interest on the financial and capital markets is still at a very low level. And it remains challenging to find profitable investment opportunities for our customer deposits.
PostFinance embarked on the new SpeedUp strategy period in 2021. How satisfied are you with what you’ve achieved so far?
We’re pleased, but we know that we still have a long way to go. We are focusing on four thematic priorities that we are driving forward in independent business units: Payment Solutions, Retail Banking, Digital First Banking and Platform Business. In parallel, we have implemented various operational projects to ensure that our services are tailored even more precisely to customer requirements. I am thinking, for example, of the new PostFinance App, the Smart and SmartPlus banking packages and Yuh.
You’ve launched another banking app – Yuh. Why does PostFinance have two apps on the market?
As the growing numbers of neobank users show, there is a great deal of demand for streamlined and free solutions. This is a need we only partially cover with our very comprehensive range of retail services. That’s why we developed our joint banking app Yuh in collaboration with Swissquote. Thanks to Yuh, we can offer our customers a tool on their smartphone that provides the freedom and flexibility to manage their money just the way they want to. And with well-known partners in the background whom they can trust. It’s going well: by the end of 2021, just under eight months after the launch, Yuh already had 42,000 active users.
The new strategy focuses more heavily on the issue of corporate responsibility. What goals have you defined?
In 2021, we approved five impact goals. We aim to firmly embed CR amongst our staff by raising awareness of the issue and implementing joint projects. We aim to gradually reduce our carbon footprint and – as part of Swiss Post – become carbon neutral by 2040 in terms of both our direct and indirect emissions, such as those stemming from our own investments. We provide sustainable market services in the areas of investment and retirement planning. When it comes to innovations, we’re focusing on sustainable finance. And we’re promoting gender equality by aiming to ensure that a third of management positions are held by women by 2024.