On Thursday afternoon, a press conference was held in Munsbach concerning the amalgamation of Cetrel in the Swiss group SIX which now owns 100% of the shares of Cetrel in Luxembourg.
Jurg Weber, Division CEO SIX Payment Services, introduced the SIX Group and its various division, including securities services, financial information and payment services, and explained that the group empoys around 4,000 staff with around 50% in Switzerland, with €1.8 billion earnings and a very healthy balance sheet, which support all business lines. As a result of the acquisition of Cetrel by SIX with affect from 1 January 2016, Cetrel now enjoys this financial backbone: SIX is owned by a number of international banks and is present in 25 countries.
He explained that for SIX, Luxembourg is perceived as the gateway to Europe and enables the SIX group to be able to react to challenges ahead in remaining the main driver of financial infrastructure, by streamlining its operations Europe-wide.
He revealed that it is currently working on a mobile application that is to be launched in pilot phase in June with major retailers, with Luxembourg to be the first operational country after the completion of the pilot phase. He also mentioned the F10 FinTech incubator in which SIX is actively involved, as well as the SIX Hackathon.
He also sees SIX being central to the swing from cash to electronic payments, a significant growth market in financial services.
SIX operates 25 million cards; China's UnionPay operates 5 billion cards; the two are currently discussing collaboration for the future.
Luc Holper, Head of SIX Payment Services in Luxembourg, reviewed the history of the collaboration with SIX which started back in 2008, with the rebranding - which was achieved with the collaboration of all former shareholders - now complete. He stressed that Luxembourg is to become a hub for SIX outside Switzerland, with expansion supported by the Competence Centre already established in the Grand Duchy.
In late November, SIX Payment Services reached a record one billion "Acquiring" transactions before the Christmas period, representing an increase of 13.55%. SIX Payment Services is the leading cashless payment market in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria. The record number of one billion transactions includes payment transactions with debit cards (Maestro and V PAY) and credit cards (MasterCard, VISA, JCB, Diners and China Union Pay) performed especially in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.
Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Luc Holper, Head of SIX Payment Services in Luxembourg; Jurg Weber, Division CEO SIX Payment Services
