SIX Group
SIX is a service provider for the financial industry and operates the infrastructure of Switzerland's financial centre. SIX develops and maintains securities trading and post-trading platforms provides financial information and sells cashless payment systems. SIX operates worldwide and is headquartered in Zurich.
 | |
| Public company | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Romeo Lacher (Chairman a.i.) Urs Rüegsegger (CEO) |
| Revenue |
 CHF 1.810 million (2015)[1] |
Number of employees | 4,058[1] |
| Website | www.six-group.com |
Business Areas
SIX provides services in four business areas. Several of those areas are authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
Securities trading via Swiss Exchange
SIX operates Switzerland's stock market. The main purpose of the SIX Swiss Exchange is to admit securities, operate the trading platform, monitor trading activities and distribute market data. The trading platform operated by the SIX Swiss Exchange and the SIX Structured Products Exchange allows the trading of equities, bonds, derivatives, investment funds and certificates, among other things. SIX provides and calculates indices such as the Swiss Market Index (SMI).
Post-trading processing and other securities services
SIX Securities Services provides clearing services by acting as a Central counterparty (CCP). Once cleared, the firm settles transactions by ensuring that the buyer receives the shares and the seller receives payment. This process includes the management of real-time payments between banks.
SIX also provides custody services for the safekeeping of shares and high-value documents. In this regard, SIX Securities Services acts as Switzerland's central securities depository and has custody of most of the financial instruments issued under Swiss law.
Finally, on behalf the Cantons of Switzerland, SIX Securities Services manages the electronic information portal for land registry data. The latter is run under the name of Terravis and enables mortgage, land and trade registry transactions.[2]
Financial information
SIX collects financial data from international trading venues and companies in real time, normalises it and sells it to subscribers (Banks, Fund Administrators, Trading Desks etc.). This includes basic information about companies which issue Financial instruments (reference data) and information about measures affecting those instruments (corporate actions) as well as providing prices for the instruments from most trying venues around the world.he services cover over 15 million financial instruments.
Cashless payment transactions
SIX processes credit, debit and prepaid card payments in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and many other European countries. In addition, SIX powers the Swiss Cash machine network and a network for processing payment cards at terminals or online. In Austria, SIX also issues payment cards. Since 2015, SIX has provided a mobile payment solution «Paymit» allowing user to make payments from their smartphone. In Switzerland the firm also processes direct debit payments and provides e-billing services.
History
Founding
in 2008, SWX Group, Telekurs Group and SIS Group joined forces to form Swiss Financial Market Services, which began to operate under the brand SIX Group in 2008. The company provides services in the areas of securities trading (former SWX Group), securities services (former SIS Group) and financial information and payment transactions (former Telekurs Group). The merged company began operating under the name of Swiss Financial Market Services, before launching the SIX brand in August 2008.
Acquisitions
In 2013, SIX took over the Austrian PayLife Bank GmbH, followed by Norwegian Oslo Clearing ASA in early 2014.
SIX increased its stake in Luxembourg's financial infrastructure service provider CETREL in 2014, which is now fully owned by SIX.
Cetrel and PayLife merged with SIX Payment Services and continue to operate under the name of the latter.
Anti trust proceedings
SIX Multipay AG launched a DCC function in 2005 that was only available on SIX Card Solutions AG card terminals. The Federal Competition Commission COMCO intervened and accused SIX subsidiary of abusing its dominant market position. In December 2006, SIX Multipay AG made the DCC function available to other terminal providers and disclosed the interface data. Four years later, the COMCO imposed a fine of CHF 7 million on SIX. SIX paid the fine, thereby ending the anti-trust proceedings.
Ownership structure
SIX is owned by 130 national and international banks in Switzerland that are also the main users of its services. SIX is not listed on the stock exchange.
Initiatives
SIX sponsors Wertpapierwelt in Olten, the world's first international museum for historical bonds and shares.[3] The collection comprises around 7,000 items and documents four centuries of economic history. The museum will be re-opened summer 2017 in Zurich as "Swiss Financial Museum".
SIX is member of the FinTech Incubator and Accelerator F10 in Zurich, where staff from SIX and various start-up companies work together with the aim of further developing financial technology in Switzerland.[4]