Viseca reports a sharp decline in turnover due to COVID-19

COVID-19 has affected Viseca’s 2020 results. However, the division of the enterprise into an issuing company and a service company as well as the systematic digitisation and modularisation of its offering mean that it is ideally positioned for the future. Viseca can therefore be expected to benefit rapidly from an upturn in transactions generated abroad in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and to return swiftly to steady growth.

Zurich, 16 April 2021 – 2020 was dominated by the global coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying temporary closures of large parts of the economy. Viseca was not spared either. Consolidated turnover fell by 29.2 percent to CHF 385.2 million (previous year: CHF 544.2 million). Of this decline, CHF 67.9 million or 12.5 percent was attributable to the sale of cashgate, which was completed in 2019. The remainder, CHF 91.0 million or 16.7 percent, is a direct consequence of COVID-19. The consolidated earnings were correspondingly disappointing, shrinking from CHF 58.3 million in 2019 to CHF -20.4 million in 2020.

Equity closed 2020 at CHF 574.4 million (previous year: CHF 654.8 million), which corresponds to an equity ratio of 50.3 percent. Despite COVID-19, Viseca continues to have a very solid capital base.

Division of the card business into issuing and service

Since October 2020, Viseca offeres customer banks the opportunity to be card issuers themselves. For this purpose, in the first half of the year, Accarda AG and Aduno Finance AG were integrated into Viseca within the framework of two mergers. Then, on 18 June 2020, Aduno Holding was renamed Viseca Holding. Finally, on 26 October 2020, after around two years in the making, the division of the enterprise into an issuing company and a service company was completed. Viseca is now able to offer customers a level of flexibility that is unique in the payments market in terms of the design of service packages and card products. The first banks have already gone live with Debit Mastercard^® or Visa Debit in the new issuer model.

Change on the Board of Directors

The Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting of 1 June 2021 that Stefan Gempeler, Head of Products and Operations and a member of the Management Board of Valiant, be elected as a new member of the Board of Directors of Viseca Holding SA. He will succeed Ewald Burgener, CEO of Valiant, who is retiring from the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors would like to thank Ewald Burgener for his continued and valuable services for the company. He has been instrumental in bringing about the realignment of Viseca’s strategy.

The full online version of the 2020 annual report is available at reports.viseca.ch/20.