If the home loan comes from Germany
Since Postfinance is not allowed to grant loans independently, it works with cooperation partners. What that means for mortgage borrowers.
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Swiss home, Swiss money: There are umpteen offers where the mortgage money comes from Switzerland.
Illustration: Christina Baeriswyl
My wife and I would like to redeem our mortgage for our single-family home in Baden. When I contacted Postfinance, I noticed that Posttochter, which is not allowed to grant loans itself, is now operating with refinancing from foreign banks. When the yellow mortgages are refinanced with foreign money wearth, I’m having some trouble. Should I take out a mortgage with Postfinance? Knowing that this may be the cheapest mortgage, but one that is financed from Germany? At least at a cantonal bank, I know where the money for my home loan comes from. Readers question from P.H.
The news had made waves before the summer holidays: According to the Federal Council, Postfinance should be able to issue mortgages and other loans in the future. At the same time, the financial institution is to be privatized. To this end, the state government has passed the message amending the Postal Organization Act. Some people must have been irritated even then: Even without the privatization of Postfinance, which the Federal Council is now striving for, it has long since become a not entirely unimportant player on the Swiss mortgage market.
The key difference is: Today Postfinance can only sell mortgages in cooperation with cooperation partners. With privatization, on the other hand, the bank would be allowed to do so, even without a cooperation partner itselfstconstantly giving out mortgages and other loans.
As your example shows, Postfinance is already competing with Swiss banks in the mortgage market. Postfinance works with the cooperation partners Valiant Bank from Bern and the Münchener Hypothekenbank from Germany on the financing offers and thus comes to a mortgage volume of around 5.8 billion francs.
This cooperation is not new: a cooperation has existed with Valiant since 2011 and with Münchener Hypothekenbank since 2008. Incidentally, Postfinance has been offering mortgages since May 2003 – a cooperation with UBS made this possible even back then. Since Valiant has publicly communicated that Valiant’s share of Postfinance «keep within limits», one can assume that the majority of Postfinance mortgages are made through the German partner, the Münchener Hypothekenbank, is handled.
As a customer, you basically don’t care where the money you get for your home through the mortgage comes from.
Postfinance brings in the customer relationship and also collects the interest from the customers itself. The risk associated with the mortgage is borne by the cooperating bank, as it brings in the money for the loan and receives a margin for it. In other words: Postfinance takes on the product design, marketing and sale of the mortgages – Münchener Hypothekenbank, on the other hand, is responsible for refinancing and bears the credit risk.
In terms of regulation, Postfinance complies with all requirements despite its partnership with a German institute. Against this background, I do not see any particular risks for you as a customer. As a customer, you could in principle not care where the money that you get for your home through the mortgage comes from. In the case of the cooperation partner Münchener Hypothekenbank, the money comes from Germany. Even with the major international banks UBS and Credit Suisse, not all of the money that is in the local mortgages comes from Switzerland.
If it is emotionally important to you that you do not claim funds from abroad for your home financing, which I understand, you can rely on financing from cantonal banks or Swiss pension funds. At Migrosbank, the Raiffeisen Institutes or the numerous regional banks active in Switzerland, the capital for mortgages is likely to come from Switzerland. Since you still have some time before you have to decide on a new contract, I would like to obtain further offers from other banks.
If, in addition to the various cantonal banks, you also include Migrosbank and the many regional banks or even a mortgage broker such as Moneypark in the round of offers, I see a high probability that you will find a provider with whom the money for the mortgage will definitely come from Switzerland but still offers lower interest rates than Postfinance and its German cooperation partner.