Page 12 - Maerki Baumann & Co. AG | Annual Report 2020

allows interested clients – by way of a supplement to our user-friendly e-banking service – to gain rapid and straightforward access to our spectrum of services. Moreover, we took advantage of the ongoing momen- tum of the crypto market in the reporting year to drive forward implementation of our multi-layered crypto strategy. In addition to the expansion of our relation- ships with business clients who want to take advantage of blockchain technology, the launch of both the trad- ing and custody of cryptocurrencies represented a fur- ther milestone. That said, traditional private banking services remain equally important to us. We therefore laid the basis for targeted local marketing in Germany with the successful establishment of our new “Private Banking Germany” department.
Business performance of Maerki Baumann
Maerki Baumann was able to unveil a very good annual result for the 2020 fiscal year, with gross profit of CHF 5.01 million and net profit of CHF 3.80 million. This development can be ascribed to the rapid market cor- rection from March 2020 and the associated perfor- mance, as well as to the rigorous measures we applied following the outbreak of the crisis. Thanks to the pleas- ing development of our business, we were able – in view of future regulatory requirements – to create additional taxed reserves for general banking risks amounting to
CHF 0.55 million. As a SIX Group shareholder, we were able to book a substantial special dividend last year relat- ing to the sale of the credit card business to the French company Worldline back in 2018. Factoring out this one- off income effect and taking account of the above-men- tioned creation of reserves, the result achieved in the reporting year rises by around 50 percent.
At CHF 3.41 million, the result from the interest busi- ness was CHF 0.3 million higher than the previous year (an increase of 10%), despite even lower – and in some cases even negative – interest rates. This result was due above all to optimized management of the balance sheet structure. At CHF 27.89 million, the result from the important commission and services business was only slightly below the prior-year level (-1%). Although falling markets led to a decline in asset-dependent fees at the start of the year, this effect was ultimately kept within limits thanks to the market recovery. As a result of greater financial market volatility, we also recorded a significant rise in turnover-dependent income (broker- age fees). Net trading income amounted to CHF 2.22 million, significantly higher than the previous year (+22%), thanks in particular to higher securities turnover and the associated forex gains. Finally and as expected, the bank’s ordinary income was CHF 1.66 million lower year on year (-73%) due to the special SIX dividend dis- tributed in 2019.
12 Maerki Baumann & Co. AG