It all began with an idea which arose in the stock exchange euphoria of the 1920’s. On 5 July 1930, a group of Zurich bankers founded the company Ticker AG, using a tickertape machine to transmit quotes from the Zurich stock exchange to bank offices in real-time. The company was founded in difficult times. “Black Friday”, the historic stock exchange crash of 1929, had shaken the world just months earlier. This was followed by a long period of depression and clouds of war, and several years that ended with losses for Ticker AG.

The world’s first stock exchange TV

Things changed for the better at the beginning of the seventies with the launching of stock exchange television. The company renamed Telekurs AG in 1962 became a small, successful, state-of-the-art technology-based service organization. The commissioning of a modern computer system in 1972 formed the basis for this upswing and the Group’s importance today.

The Swiss banks’ vital joint creation

In 1978, Telekurs stepped into the world of payment traffic with central monitoring of the ATM network. A fundamental decision was made in 1980 under the aegis of the Swiss Bankers' Association: Interbank task associated with payment traffic would from then on be assumed by Telekurs. The assignment to develop the Bancomat 85 ATM series was followed by other interbank task such as the development, introduction and support of the ec system and Swiss Interbank Clearing.

Cashless payment traffic center

Growth induced problems at the end of the eighties were followed by the golden nineties with double digit growth rates in cashless payment transactions and a turbulent stock exchange boom. After the Millennium change, the massive expectations in the Internet technology based stock exchange bubble burst. Partially shrinking domestic markets and global competition are the environment in which the Telekurs Group finds itself today.

Lofty goals

Telekurs remains true to its original mandate even after 75 years. The acquisition and distribution of stock exchange quotes from around the world remains one of its essential areas of activity. Then there are the card business and payment systems which have developed into powerful turnover generating business divisions. Telekurs is driven to continue functioning as a vital pillar the Swiss financial center, to be among the best in the business fields in which it is active. The Telekurs Group will meet this goal by providing high quality at low cost, increase its competitiveness within the increasingly hard-fought international financial markets.