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by Bob Buchheit
Moneycab.com: Mr. Stucki, Zürcher Landbank (ZLB) significantly increased both lending and customer deposits last year. Is Winterthur breaking out of Zurich’s shadow?
Hans-Ulrich Stucki: The Winterthur region has seen continuous development in recent years. The jobs and the supply of living space are developing positively, the region also has a well-developed transport network and a wide range of education and culture. The power of the Zurich economic area has a positive effect on the Winterthur region.
Are you skeptical about the development of real estate prices between Wil and Winterthur? Has too much been dumped?
Real estate in Switzerland has seen unprecedented price developments in recent years, so there are overall risks in this market. I am confident about the regional real estate market. He turns out to be solid. The vacant housing stocks are moderate. There is also brisk demand for homes and condominiums, which is supporting prices. I cannot find any production in stockpile.
“I am confident about the regional real estate market. It turns out to be solid. “
Hans-Ulrich Stucki, CEO of Zürcher Landbank
The region has a high recreational value, especially for cyclists. The branches of your bank are located in Elgg, Räterschen, Rickenbach and Neftenbach. Do many people come to do their banking business by bike?
The rural region around Winterthur actually has a high recreational value. When it comes to market cultivation, our branches and local customer advisors continue to play a central role. Our customers really appreciate the on-site contact options. Of course, many customers come to us on foot or by bike. However, if you are on the bike for leisure, you usually do not have the banking transactions in your head, at most he or she withdraws money from the machine to stop off at one of the inviting restaurants or to go shopping in the farm shop – if that is possible again.
Business expenses rose by around a fifth, as a large proportion of the renovation costs for the property in Räterschen were charged directly to the income statement. Can there be further branch modernizations in the next few years? Have you not planned anything new for the main office in Elgg?
Our branches are now up to date. At the headquarters in Elgg, we are planning a small refreshment of the sales room this year.
The increase in loans could be fully financed by new customer deposits. So Zürcher Landbank is on a solid footing. But are there still interesting investment opportunities for customers?
It is actually more and more difficult to achieve a decent return. Together with our strategic partner, Bank Avera in Wetzikon, we have realigned our investment offering, also with a view to the new legal requirements (FinSA). In this context, we offer attractive asset management mandates, starting at CHF 10,000.
“Together with Bank Avera, we migrated our data processing to an open finance platform at the beginning of 2020.”
The interest income as the bank’s most important source of income was clearly higher at five percent to 9.5 million francs. As a financial expert, how many more years of lean interest do you expect?
If it is extremely difficult to forecast economic and interest rate developments in normal times, this is all the more true in this extremely challenging current situation. In my opinion, interest rates are likely to remain very low for several years, which will lead to further shrinking interest margins.
You invested and are investing heavily in digitization. With what focus?
Together with Bank Avera, we migrated our data processing to an open finance platform at the beginning of 2020. In the coming years, it will now be a question of using the new possibilities in order to be able to meet the growing needs of our customers even better.
Your shareholders receive the 19 franc dividend tax-free. Under what circumstances can this even be increased?
The trees in our traditional business field do not grow into the sky. We are continuously working on generating solid and sustainable income, which remains challenging in the aforementioned interest rate environment.
Additional information on Zürcher Landbank AG such as
- current exchange rate
- Course history
- Company portrait
- and much more
can be found at Zürcher Kantonalbank here …
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