Continuous Execution of the SIX Growth Strategy
Financial markets are evolving. New technologies allow for ground-breaking innovations that will lead toward the transformation of the entire financial market infrastructure landscape. SIX is one of the very few companies acting at the intersection of data, technology, and infrastructure. Innovation, continuous investment, and margin accretive growth are indispensable for SIX to stay competitive and serve the financial centers in the long term.
SIX is one of the largest financial market infrastructure companies in Europe. Our purpose is to drive the competitiveness of our customers in both of our home markets – Switzerland and Spain – as well as globally.
Besides our customers in the financial industry, our services also benefit the wider economy and society as a whole. Accordingly, SIX pursues a holistic set of targets, encompassing all relevant stakeholders:
- Customers: Offer first-class innovative products and services
- Financial Center and Economy: Maintain a secure, stable, and efficient infrastructure for traditional & digital assets
- People and Environment: Enable a sustainable future
- Shareholders: Serve as a vehicle for growth and value creation
To achieve these targets in a rapidly changing and increasingly global environment, SIX builds on its unique business portfolio covering capital raising, trading, post-trade, data, and banking infrastructure services. The diversified business portfolio puts SIX in a competitive position, allowing the company to tap into the growth opportunities along the entire securities value chain that add most value to our customers.
Seizing these growth opportunities while at the same time ensuring the stability and efficiency of our infrastructure requires continuous investment. SIX itself must remain attractive for investors in order to finance this investment going forward. The diligent execution of its ambitious growth strategy ensures that SIX realizes economies of scale and reaches its financial targets.
With recovery from the global pandemic, war in Ukraine, and muted macro-economic backdrop emerging, 2022 has been a challenging year. Despite these challenges, SIX remains committed to its growth strategy. In the current strategy cycle, SIX aims for further growth alongside a gradual increase of its profitability. Revenue growth of > 4% p.a. and strict cost discipline will go hand in hand to achieve this target.
The key elements of the SIX growth strategy are:
- further strengthening the capitalraising ecosystems in Switzerland and Spain, especially for SMEs
- fully leveraging capabilities and realizing synergies after the successful integration of the Spanish units
- growing the clearing and custody business by extending our offering and increasing our global footprint, for example by offering cross-border custody solutions in Asia and the US
- extending the offering in the digital asset space and loading liquidity onto the platform around SIX Digital Exchange
- expanding our attractive market position in the financial information space by pursuing various growth opportunities around tax and regulatory services, funds/ETFs, and ESG
- accelerating the current growth path in the banking services space by various measures, such as expanding our digitized billing offering (eBill) and growing our open banking ecosystem (bLink)
As in past years, and given the rapidly evolving state of industry consolidation, seizing inorganic growth opportunities will remain an integral part of our growth strategy.
One important element to support the growth strategy of SIX is the realignment of the legal structure. In 2022, SIX consolidated the exchange-related businesses in the new SIX Exchange Group entity, providing flexibility to seize market opportunities and develop a strong international profile. SIX Exchange Group and SIX Banking Services will continue to operate under the SIX Group holding umbrella, and the ownership structure as well as management structures of SIX remain unchanged.
The systemically important role of SIX in the Swiss and Spanish financial centers brings with it a responsibility with regard to facilitating sustainable finance. Financial markets play a pivotal role in the transition to a greener, more sustainable economy by enabling the mobilization and reallocation of capital necessary for this transformation. In 2022, SIX started to fully integrate sustainability into its overall strategic thinking with the launch of a sustainability strategy. Being at the heart of the capital market ecosystem, SIX will continue to actively support the transformation of Swiss and Spanish financial centers. ■
