The positioning of OpenBankingProject.ch is based on the four fundamental values of the initiative: consideration of the end customer perspective, internationalisation, open-source, and a balanced and independent governance. An active cooperation with other initiatives, including mutual involvement, is being sought. Among other things, this should ensure that there is no overlap as well as a common understanding of specifications and processes.
The fulfilment of the goals for 2021, which were presented in the last news article, are partly delayed due to the ongoing coordination talks with other initiatives. Hopefully, this situation will be resolved this quarter so that Open Banking in Switzerland can be driven forward together at full speed.
Bleher concluded his presentation with the introduction of planned community workshops around "Open Banking Network". The overriding goal is the efficient and sustainable connection of TPPs to banks, also considering existing market offers and prerequisites. Starting in May, virtual workshops are planned in which relevant use cases, implementation scenarios and the onboarding of TPPs including certification will be approached in a structured way.
In the second part of the event, two partners and three members presented their motivation and current activities around the topic of open banking and identified cooperation potentials with the member companies. In addition, two guest speakers explained the benefits of a standardised credit dossier.
Partner Avaloq - «Orchestrating the financial ecosystem»
„A good user experience is nowadays an indispensable prerequisite for broad acceptance both by users within the bank and by end customers. This also includes the seamless integration of partner solutions and their orchestration. “
Dr. Nils Bulling (Head Digital Strategy & Innovation)
Avaloq's mission is to sustainably change the world of finance, in particular, to reinvent finance for people and to make a difference in society. Here, the topics of democratising asset management and orchestrating the financial ecosystem play a crucial role for Avaloq. In the area of open banking, Avaloq is one of the driving forces in the banking sector. The Avaloq.one ecosystem operated by Avaloq already offers a marketplace with access to over 120 third-party solutions. Avaloq is also committed to the open banking approach, particularly with its crypto solution. By integrating third-party solutions, critical processes such as AML compliance are seamlessly integrated and use cases are covered end-to-end. This illustrates that Avaloq, in its role as orchestrator, envisages a strong involvement of its partners.
Member Axon Ivy – «API-unterstütze User Journey Finanzieren»
„Switzerland is too small to invent everything 10 times over.
We should rely on standards that already exist.”
Nikolaj Marwitz (Head of Products, Axon FinTech)
Axon Fintech, a brand of Axon Ivy, digitalises the entire credit process with its products. This digitalisation was presented based on the customer journey "Purchase of an owner-occupied home". Together with Valiant and Moneypark, Axon Fintech has now set up a specific project in which they want to support the aforesaid user journey through API implementation. End customers should be able to start a loan application without media breaks and in real-time via comparison portals. A central approach is to use the same data and make it available to all parties involved (family, bank, TPP) via the APIs. Marwitz emphasised that Switzerland is too small to have several standards per area, so they use existing standards whenever possible. With this step, Axon FinTech wants Open Banking to become a reality in Switzerland.
Guest Presentation – «Benefits of a standardised credit dossier»
Zeljko Gudelj and Gürdal Cakicioglu followed on from the previous presentation by Axon FinTech with their guest presentation on the benefits of a standardised credit dossier. They demonstrated the advantages of their vision, “a holistic, consistent modelling” of processes, using the reference example of the standardised electronic credit dossier for owner-occupied housing. The standardisation of communication between the market participants, thanks to the professional and technical standardisation through API, offers the basis for a uniform implementation in the market and thus scaling and an increased efficiency for all market participants. They base their considerations on the normative meta-model of the CC Ecosytems (formerly CC Sourcing) of the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen. According to Gudelj and Cakicioglu, the central advantages of a standardised credit dossier are the availability of the company's knowledge in a networked and consistently documented form, an increased transparency, faster recognition of risks and an easier and more efficient implementation of changes.
Member Crealogix – «A look beyond the country's borders…”
„Open banking initiatives and successes abroad are driving interest
in this area in Switzerland. We would like to make this know-how
from abroad increasingly available in Switzerland. “
Thomas Roth (CTO)
Crealogix sees the success of open banking abroad as a clear driver for interest in Switzerland. The PSD2 standards were initially only regulatory. Now, they are being extended independently at institutions in neighbouring countries to create a basis for open banking networks that go beyond payments and account information. Crealogix's experience includes a financial app for families called "MyFamilyFinance", which enables digital pocket money and targeted savings for children and young people in a multi-banking approach. A second contribution can be found in the example of the platform "Raisin", which provides investment opportunities from more than 100 banks to private and business customers from eight EU countries. Crealogix would like to use its knowledge from abroad to actively promote open banking in Switzerland to be able to provide consumers here with innovative solutions - especially for the benefit of the financial institutions involved.
Member SwissSign Group – «Introduction as a new Member»
„The identity of the bank customer is usually the starting point or the core of a business. Digitalisation and harmonisation of processes must focus on the customer itself and their experience.”
Markus Naef (CEO)
Swiss Sign, which was founded in 2001 as a start-up, would like to contribute its great experience to the OpenBankingProject.ch, especially in the KYC process, and make a valuable contribution with its identity solutions. The number of users of the company's own electronic identity solution, SwissID, has increased to over 1.8 million in the last two years. Naef is convinced that the identity or identification of the bank customer will continue to play a central role in the context of open banking and that digitalisation and harmonisation of the process is therefore inevitable. A harmonised identity layer along the customer life cycle will enable banks to concentrate on their core business.
Partner Inventx – «Introduction as a new Partner»
„As a partner, Inventx can contribute even more actively to the standardisation
of financial APIs and thus to the future of the Swiss financial industry. “
Pascal Wild (Head Financial Services & Solutions)
Inventx is a Swiss IT and digitalisation partner for leading financial and insurance service providers. At the locations in Chur, Zurich Airport and St. Gallen, the nearly 300 employees live the proximity to the customer. The independent and owner-managed IT company designs, operates and integrates application, IT, and cloud solutions for renowned customers in the finance and insurance industry. With its Open Finance platform, Inventx focuses on an end-to-end offering through SaaS solutions (Software as a Service). In the context of Open Banking, applications can be efficiently connected thanks to a future-oriented API platform and Inventx orchestrates the ecosystem. Pascal Wild further emphasised the advantages of software development in smaller customer groups. In this way, financial service providers can have customised and differentiating solutions developed in the community process and at the same time keep the costs of digitalisation under control. The current and future needs of customers as well as business and technology trends form the basis for the further development of the Open Finance platform.
The second members' event was concluded with an outlook by Thomas Zerndt (BEI St. Gallen). Community workshops are presently being set up in the area of customer onboarding and KYC, and after the overarching coordination with the other initiatives, the community workshops in the area of "bankable assets" will also be continued. The 2nd Open Banking Summit is currently being planned and will take place on Thursday, 26th August 2021 from 16:00 in the area of Zurich.
The entire members' event was enriched by exciting questions from the participants. We would like to thank all participants and speakers for this successful event and are already looking forward to the next members' event on 3rd November 2021 from 16:00 to 18:00.