PostFinance kept showing strong growth in the first quarter of 2012. For the first time in its history, the financial arm of Swiss Post now manages client assets in excess of 100 billion Swiss francs. 34,000 new clients opened accounts with PostFinance in the first three months of the year. Profit (EBT) came to CHF178 million, the same as a year ago.

Trust in PostFinance remains at a high. Successfully closing out last year, the financial arm of Swiss Post started the new year on a high too. Some 34,000 new clients opted for PostFinance in the first quarter of 2012. This is almost double the number of the entire previous year, which saw 18,000 new customers putting their trust in PostFinance. The total number of clients rose to 2.85 million.

Breaking through the CHF100 billion mark

In the first three months of the year, client assets amounted to an average of CHF101.9 billion. This is a CHF9.7 billion increase over the average for 2011. As number one in payment traffic, PostFinance registers large fluctuations in client assets and for that reason publishes averages. With over CHF100 billion in clients assets, PostFinance is now the third largest financial institute on the Swiss retail market.

Earnings stable

Quarterly earnings (EBT) of CHF178 million came to virtually the same level as the same period a year ago (CHF181 million). The slight drop of three million Swiss francs is the result of an increase in personnel expenditure. The three largest sources of income (service revenue, commission, commercial earnings) remained stable for the most part. Owing to the situation on the financial markets, the interest margin remained under pressure.

However, thanks to the market-oriented solution of value adjustments and increase in client assets, earnings remained on the same level as in the previous year. For the current year, PostFinance is expecting lower earnings than in 2011.

Popular electronic services

Almost half of the clients manage their finances electronically with e-Finance. With 1.38 million clients, PostFinance is the number one in Swiss online banking. By offering a large number of electronic services, PostFinance's aim is to make financial life as simple as possible for its clients and allow them to independently manage their finances. Examples of this effort include the recently launched e-Cockpit and e-moneybox. E-Cockpit, a personal financial tool that automatically categorises and graphically processes the income and expenses of clients, already has over 28,000 users. And the electronic piggy bank, e-moneybox, has won 22,000 users in only three weeks.