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Where are you looking to grow?

We see promise in the U.K., where I’m optimistic for our chances, partly due to Brexit. The Benelux countries and Austria are promising, and we have a major project with Apobank in Germany. Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Australia are big markets for us.

What about the U.S., the largest wealth market in the world?

I always say we have quite enough with our own projects. We have it on our radar, but perhaps we haven’t been courageous enough yet to tackle the U.S.

The loss of Arizon was a setback for Avaloq.

I think we’ve achieved the second-best solution. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. The sale to Raiffeisen is a sensible solution, and we work well together.

You’re in the process of moving from a reliable high-margin software licensing revenue model to a service one. How will that affect your profitability?

We can’t achieve the same margins in services as in licensing – it’s simply not possible.

«An IPO is one route, but partnership or trade sale are others»

I think we’ll have achieved our target margin of roughly 20 percent in two to three years, provided there aren’t dramatic changes in regulation.

What does that mean for an eventual exit of your private equity shareholder, Warburg Pincus?

We look at what is good for our shareholders, our employees, and our clients. An initial public offering is one possible route, but we’re not ruling out a partnership or a trade sale at some point in the future.

What type of partner?

We’re increasingly seeing finance firms looking to expand their value chain in order to tie in clients, but also service providers from other industries like telecommunications.

What role is cryptocurrency playing in your business?

Whatever you may think about cryptocurrencies, we believe that digitization of assets is inevitable.

«Crypto is still a taboo for some banks»

Our clients need to be able to monitor those digitally – whether they are currencies or securities. Otherwise, they won’t be able to value a portfolio or do a full asset allocation.

You have a partnership for crypto solutions. How curious are your banking clients for these services?

We have one client and a second about to come on. Some banks are very open, while for others cryptocurrencies are still a massive taboo.

Your results last year showed that Avaloq is a company in transition. What needs to happen before you are ready to be disposed of?

Francisco Fernandez and I are of one mind on this: we’re not disposing of an asset. On the very long term a future investor, owner, or entrepreneur will probably want to make something more out of it. We’re not at all sprucing up the bride. We want to continue to build something of substance. Having said that, Avaloq is not for sale.

Juerg Hunziker has been CEO of Avaloq for 17 months. He began his career as a foreign exchange trader at UBS. Hunziker spent more than 25 years with Sungard, a software firm now owned by Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS. Most recently, he was responsible for Sungard's financial trading, risk, and private banking software and technology services.