Swissquote Ordered by Regulator to Slash Suspicious Activity

(Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s financial watchdog has stepped up pressure on trading platform Swissquote Group Holding SA to do more to curb suspicious activity amid a surge in attempted fraud and hacks.

In an annual assessment letter earlier this year, Finma told Switzerland’s biggest consumer trading platform to do more to reduce the number of reports it has to submit to the country’s money laundering reporting office, according to Swissquote CEO Marc Buerki.

Particular emphasis was put on financial-services app Yuh, which Swissquote operates in cooperation with state-owned lender PostFinance AG, Buerki said, adding that systems belonging to Swissquote itself hadn’t been compromised by reported suspicious activity.

“The amount of attacks and fraud attempts on our systems has particularly increased with the rise of AI,” Buerki said. In 2025 so far, “we had to take action against more than 600 websites impersonating Swissquote or using fake login pages,” he said. 

Finma and PostFinance declined to comment on the matter.

The Swiss regulator has repeatedly warned of the increased risks cyber-crime poses to financial institutions, with reports about successful or partly successful attacks increasing by 30% compared with the prior year. UBS Group AG last month saw data of more than 130,000 staff published on the darknet following a cyber attack on procurement service provider Chain IQ.

Buerki said much of the suspicious activity directed at his firm is executed from abroad, making it harder to control it.

Shares of Swissquote fell as much as 2.1% on Tuesday. They are still up 26% year to date.

Elsewhere in Europe, the European Central Bank has also warned that some banks aren’t doing enough to tackle cyber risks. ABN Amro NV and Banco Santander both suffered data breaches following hacks at external suppliers last year.

Swissquote rose to popularity among retail investors because of its early offering of cryptocurrencies and lower fees than incumbent players. The stock is one of Europe’s best-performing this decade and its market capitalization has by now surpassed seasoned Swiss wealth managers such as EFG International AG or Vontobel Holding AG.

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