Discover how two visionaries transformed a small software company into a pioneering digital bank, reshaping the financial landscape in Switzerland and beyond.
Marc Bürki and Paolo Buzzi founded Marvel Communications SA in 1990, specialising in financial software. The company evolved into Swissquote, launched in 1996 as the first platform offering free access to Swiss stock exchange prices, quickly becoming Switzerland's largest financial portal and going public on SIX Swiss Exchange in 2000.
Get the inside story of Swissquote and our CEO, Marc Bürki, translated from the dedicated chapter of the book "Die 100 spannendsten Schweizer Unternehmen", by Peter Röthlisberger.
By enabling private investors to access real-time prices free of charge we followed our mission of “democratising banking” - transparency, integrity and unbiased information for the benefit of our clients, allowing them to make independent decisions. Through the success of this proposition Swissquote Group Holding Ltd was created and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in May 2000. In 2001, Swissquote Bank Ltd obtained a banking licence.
Following our aim to create connections to the world’s top financial exchanges, we gained access to the Swiss Stock Exchange (at the time SWX and Virt-X) as well as to the US NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX exchanges in 2001. At the same time we became the first fully digital bank in Switzerland and were awarded as the Best Swiss Online Broker.
After the takeover of Consors (Switzerland) AG in 2002, followed by the takeover of the clients of Skandia Bank Switzerland, further markets, financial products and services completed our offer.
Even though Swissquote was a fully regulated bank it was seen as an outsider to the well-established Swiss banking fraternity. Not being a part of the Swiss banking establishment and within the context of the financial crisis of 2007/8, Swissquote became more and more attractive to the private investor for whom our proposition of “democratising banking” truly resonated.
Always in search of new approaches to the complex issues of finance, we created a chair in quantitative finance at the EPFL in Lausanne in 2009 and launched our first Quant Fonds.
In 2010, the acquisition of Advanced Currency Markets AG (ACM) one of the country’s largest currency traders allowed us to consolidate our position as a leader in online trading and helped us to rapidly expand our Forex dealing. A further step to democratising banking was the launch of a new service the same year: ePrivate Banking, electronic asset management for discerning clients who were looking for a professional yet easy to use tool to personally manage their portfolio.
In September 2013, we secured a place in the international market by acquiring MIG Bank, a major Forex broker. This acquisition propelled Swissquote into the world’s top ten online currency trading service providers.
The same year, Swissquote Ltd was established in London, incorporating elements of MIG Bank, to bring Forex online services to all markets in the European Union.
During the last years, we have added more significant services to our broad offer: online mortgages in collaboration with Luzerner Kantonalbank, Swiss DOTS, the trading platform for derivative products in collaboration with UBS, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, Vontobel and BNP as well as our partnership with PostFinance in 2014.
In 2015, Themes Trading, a new service in the Fintech environment, provided our customers with insights to invest in comprehensible and relatable trends. In the same year, Swissquote and Manchester United announced an agreement on a global multi-year partnership. With this cooperation, Swissquote is aiming to share to its services and expertise with a broader, international public.
Always on the lookout for creative solutions, in 2016 Swissquote launched an Apple TV application, which provides continuous financial news coverage on TV. Inspired by Pokémon GO, our engineers developedSwissquote GO, the first financial based game in Switzerland. Our Quant Fund, which uses the same algorithm as our Robo-Advisory solution, won the Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Award 2016, declaring it the best performing equity fund over 3 years with an average growth of 8.6% per year and a total return of almost 60% since its inception in 2009.
In 2017, Swissquote hit another important milestone by becoming the first bank to offer five cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin and Ripple) providing simple and safe trading to all customers. To secure unlimited access to the European markets, in August 2018 Swissquote bought the Luxembourg-based Internaxx Bank S.A. with around 12’000 clients and client assets of EUR 2 billion. In the same year, another innovation came to live: a multicurrency credit card that can be used to pay in 12 different currencies without conversion fees.
Since October 2018 clients have the chance to participate in Initial Token Offerings (ITOs) with the possibility to directly buy tokens for Swiss francs through your Swissquote account and hold them in custody at Swissquote.
Among the highlights of 2019 are the successful acquisition of the Luxembourg-based Internaxx Bank S.A. The acquisition of Internaxx, with EUR 2 billion in client assets, provides Swissquote with unrestricted access to the European markets and strengthens its position as an online investment provider for both institutional and private clients. In the same year, Swissquote is opening another office in the Asia-Pacific region with Swissquote Singapore Pte.
Digital banking is part of our DNA and we will continue to be curious, creative and inventive in order to facilitate and democratise the world of finance for our clients.
We want to be innovators, pioneers, game-changers, stimulated by the endless possibilities of re-engineering banking - Think big!
We want to create the most inspiring working environment in the banking industry where new ideas and technologies are imagined and brought to life and where the norm is challenged by asking questions like; what if? Why not?
We want to create a freethinking environment where curiosity and debate is celebrated and the boundaries of technology and customers service are pushed beyond expectations.
We are professionally disruptive.
Swissquote is a team made up of a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, nationalities and skills which makes us such a unique business and what we are today.
We encourage you to challenge yourself, to push your colleagues from their comfort zones, to work together so we are stronger, faster and smarter at what we do.
So, collaborate with your colleagues, work with our partners and listen to our customers as we will achieve our vision united as one.
Integrity is one of our most important values, it is the backbone of Swissquote.
We are consummate professionals, we will always abide by the regulations of our industry and do the right thing for our customers.
We are fair, honest, respectful and transparent in our dealings with our customers, staff, colleagues and partners.
Swissness - we may be pioneers and game-changers but everything we do will be considered and done for the right reasons for our customers’ benefit.
We may be 20 years old but we are as enthusiastic, energetic and determined as we were when we started.
Swissquote is a highly motivated, agile, youthful and spirited organisation that understands and operates in the world’s digital community. We set the agenda extremely high for ourselves and for others to follow - so, good is never good enough as excellence is what we strive for.
We are an ambitious and refreshing premium Swiss bank that wants to revolutionise the sector we work in.
Transparency and honesty is one of our business cornerstones and we believe it is the foundation of an enduring and trusting relationship.
We hide nothing from our customers and partners.
Our language is unambiguous and clear.
The information and opinion we deliver is unbiased and honest.
The customers is the most important factor of our business and without them we have no business.
We must think ‘client first’ and be their champions at all times.
We must be obsessive about understanding our customers’ wants, needs and ambitions and create products and services that satisfy their appetite.
By understanding the customers, creating breathtaking service and products, enduring relationships will be born.
Our ambition is to make information, technology and products accessible to all so every investor in the world can make informed on-line investments.
Full acquisition of Yuh
Launch of the fractional trading feature
Launch of Invest Easy, Swissquote's successful guided investment and saving solution
Launch of the new ESG investing feature
Launch of Neo bank Yuh
Swissquote acquires Internaxx bank
First digital bank to offer crypto trading
Launch of the Swiss DOTS, our own market for leveraged products
First headquarters opening in Gland, Switzerland
Swissquote.ch is the first platform with free access to prices for all securities traded on the Swiss stock exchange