19.06.2014 Banks in Switzerland, 2013 Edition
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Press release Communications P.O. Box, CH-8022 Zurich Telephone +41 44 631 31 11 [email protected] Zurich, 19 June 2014 Banks in Switzerland, 2013 edition Results from the Swiss National Bank’s data collection Preliminary remarks PostFinance Ltd was granted a banking licence in 2013. The PostFinance data are now included in the publication Banks in Switzerland. A number of items in the balance sheet and income statement therefore report exceptional increases. The number of staff is also influenced by the inclusion of PostFinance. (For more information on the inclusion of PostFinance, see page 5.) Summary of results In 2013, 235 of the 283 banks covered recorded an annual profit amounting to CHF 11.9 billion (2012: CHF 7.1 billion). An annual loss totalling CHF 1.4 billion was reported by 48 banks (2012: CHF 6.9 billion). Profit from ordinary banking operations (gross profit) increased by CHF 2.1 billion to CHF 19.5 billion. In the balance sheet, domestic business grew in importance compared to foreign business on both the assets and the liabilities side. In Switzerland, the rise in mortgage claims continued. Customer deposits also rose again. Staff cuts occurred both in Switzerland and abroad. However, a slight increase was recorded in Switzerland as a result of PostFinance staff being included for the first time. Customer holdings of securities in bank custody accounts again saw a substantial increase, which was attributable to increasing stock exchange prices. The downward trend of the past few years continued in fiduciary investments. Page 1/5 Zurich, 19 June 2014 Press release Key figures 2013 Annual profit (CHF millions) 11 928 Annual loss (CHF millions) 1 411 Gross profit (CHF millions) 19 502 Balance sheet total (CHF billions) 2 849 Securities holdings in custody accounts* (CHF billions) 5 167 Fiduciary transactions (CHF billions) 121 Number of institutions 283 Number of staff (in full-time equivalents) 123 718 * At offices in Switzerland. Securities held by branches abroad are not included. The 2013 edition of Banks in Switzerland is based on data in banks’ (parent companies) individual financial statements, as required by law.1 For the income statement, the data presented may deviate from consolidated figures, particularly in the case of the big banks. The SNB’s Financial Stability Report, by contrast, which is released at the same time as Banks in Switzerland, uses consolidated financial statements for the big banks. When interpreting the results, this difference in the data basis should be taken into account. Income statement Of the 283 banks covered (2012: 297), 235 recorded an annual profit (2012: 254) and 48 an annual loss (2012: 43). The total annual profit rose by CHF 4.8 billion to CHF 11.9 billion. At the same time, the total annual loss went down by CHF 5.5 billion to CHF 1.4 billion. Both of these developments were strongly influenced by both big banks recording a profit, whereas one of the big banks had posted a loss the year before. Profit from ordinary banking operations (gross profit) went up by CHF 2.1 billion, or 11.8%, to CHF 19.5 billion; approximately one-quarter of this increase can be attributed to PostFinance. The rise in gross profit was particularly due to the clear decline in interest expenses (down CHF 4.1 billion to CHF 19.6 billion), although greater net income from commission business and services (up CHF 1.1 billion to CHF 24.5 billion) and a decrease in operating expenses (down CHF 0.3 billion to CHF 41.3 billion) also contributed. The result from trading activities and the other result from ordinary activities were both down on the previous year, by CHF 0.2 billion to CHF 8.3 billion and CHF 0.3 billion to CHF 5.7 billion respectively. Despite a decrease of CHF 2.3 billion, depreciation of tangible assets remained high at CHF 7.6 billion. The value adjustments, provisions and losses item rose by CHF 0.7 billion to CHF 4.3 billion. Extraordinary income went up by CHF 3.1 billion to CHF 6.3 billion, while extraordinary expenses declined substantially, by CHF 4.0 billion to CHF 1.5 billion. 1 Individual financial statements as required by law (parent company) relate to the business conducted by the banks’ head offices in Switzerland and their legally dependent domestic and foreign branches. Consolidated financial statements, however, also include business conducted by the banks’ legally autonomous subsidiaries in Switzerland and in other countries (banks and non-banks). Page 2/5 Zurich, 19 June 2014 Press release Balance sheet business In the year under review, the aggregate balance sheet total for all banks in Switzerland was CHF 2,849.2 billion. The increase of CHF 70.9 billion, or 2.6%, was mainly the result of including PostFinance in the banking statistics for the first time (balance sheet total: CHF 117.0 billion). Excluding PostFinance, the balance sheet total would have gone down by CHF 46.1 billion, or 1.7%, to CHF 2,732.1 billion. The more domestically focused bank categories reported an increase in balance sheet totals, while the balance sheet totals of bank categories with a greater focus on foreign business decreased. Domestic mortgage claims, which make up approximately 30% of the aggregated balance sheet total, continued to rise in the year under review, growing by 4.2%, or CHF 35.4 billion, to CHF 869.8 billion. Other loans to domestic borrowers, which are entered under the amounts due from customers item, increased by CHF 9.7 billion to CHF 175.6 billion, largely due to the inclusion of PostFinance.2 In 2013, a substantial advance was recorded in customer deposits. Apart from a substantial PostFinance effect of CHF 42.6 billion, the amounts due to customers in the savings or deposit accounts item was up by CHF 75.2 billion to CHF 601.7 billion, with big banks and domestically focused banks, in particular, recording considerable increases. Other amounts due to customers rose by CHF 58.4 billion to CHF 1,073.3 billion, although domestic and foreign liabilities developed differently. The domestic increase amounted to CHF 82.6 billion, CHF 62.9 billion of which can be put down to the inclusion of PostFinance. This was in contrast to a decline abroad, by CHF 24.1 billion to CHF 580.7 billion, which was attributable to foreign-controlled banks. The amounts due from cash bonds item decreased by CHF 4.2 billion to CHF 25.9 billion. Securities held in custody accounts Customer holdings of securities in bank custody accounts increased by 6.7% to CHF 5,167.4 billion. Rising share prices made a substantial contribution to this increase. However, security holdings are still below the previous peak registered in 2007 (CHF 5,402.3 billion). Among the securities categories, the most substantial rise was recorded by share holdings (up by 17.7% to CHF 2,081.3 billion). Units in collective investment schemes also advanced, by 7.9% to CHF 1,552.6 billion. By contrast, bonds and investments in structured products receded, by 6.2% to CHF 1,261.1 billion and by 5.9% to CHF 189.6 billion respectively. The most important investment currency was still the Swiss franc (share: 51.0%), followed by the US dollar (22.3%) and the euro (18.1%). In 2013, the most significant increase was recorded by securities holdings in Swiss francs (up by 10.6% to CHF 2,634.7 billion). The rise in investments in US dollars and euros was less pronounced, up 5.7% to CHF 1,151.8 billion and 3.5% to CHF 936.6 billion respectively. 2 PostFinance reports lending to municipalities, towns and cantons under this balance sheet item. Page 3/5 Zurich, 19 June 2014 Press release Fiduciary transactions The decline in fiduciary funds continued in 2013, with a fall of CHF 17.0 billion to CHF 120.7 billion, and at year-end they amounted to approximately one-quarter of the peak value in 2007. Funds of this kind invested in euros recorded the greatest decline, by CHF 6.7 billion to CHF 20.9 billion, again reducing their share, this time by 2.8 percentage points to 17.3%. The US dollar is the most important investment currency for fiduciary funds. Although the fiduciary funds placed in US dollars were slightly down by CHF 1.2 billion to CHF 74.3 billion, their share of the total continued to rise, by 6.8 percentage points to 61.5%. Fiduciary funds invested in Swiss francs also declined in absolute terms (by CHF 0.4 billion to CHF 5.6 billion), but rose proportionally (by 0.3 percentage points to 4.7%). Employment Excluding PostFinance, staff numbers decreased from the previous year by 5,185, or 4.0%, to 123,718 (in terms of full-time equivalents). Switzerland saw a reduction by 2,840, or 2.7%, to 102,316 jobs; 1,955 of these job losses were at big banks. The number of jobs abroad went down by 2,345 or 9.9% to 21,402. In comparison with the peak value of 136,200 full-time equivalents recorded in 2007, approximately 9% fewer staff were employed in the year under review (down 6.0% in Switzerland and 21.8% abroad). However, due to PostFinance and the 3,419 jobs it provides in Switzerland being included in the statistics for the first time (PostFinance does not employ any staff abroad), the overall data paint a different picture.