Financial institutions are aiming to increase their everyday relevance to their end customers by making a wide range of use cases from various areas of life digitally available. Standardization plays a central role here. Almost all market participants have now recognized this need for action. However, in contrast to the EU, which is setting binding requirements for the harmonization of payment products, infrastructures, and technical standards with the PSD2 guideline, Switzerland entrusts the implementation to the market participants. Initiatives such as the OpenBankingProject.ch are forming to help open banking become more standardized in Switzerland. Inventx has recently become a partner of this initiative.
Push for innovation
The number of standardized open interfaces is still manageable. Nevertheless, their benefits are essential for the rapid development and supply of innovative services and products. It is obvious that standards will first become established where market participants see the greatest benefit every day, for example in digital payment transactions or loans. But the "applicationization" of banking also has potential where it makes banking "fancy" and offers a new experience. For example, among the younger generation. Today's children and young people will experience a completely new kind of banking in their later daily and professional life - more digital, more comprehensive, more personalized, more convenient, more "gamified," and so on. So, what could be more obvious than introducing children to digital banking at an early age?
Digital Banking for Kids (DB4Kids)
With the ongoing digitalization, children need digital means of payment at an earlier age. But in general, banks do not have direct and active customer relationships with children younger than 18. This is where apps like DB4Kids step in: a pocket money app that simplifies "pocket money management" for children and parents. Children are introduced to digital money in a playful way and have the possibility to set savings goals, for example. This encourages them to handle their available budget responsibly. For the bank, apps like this strengthen the connection between parents and their children to their institution; it improves its image by actively promoting the topic of "financial literacy" - and it takes innovative paths by strategically adapting to the future generation of customers with new desires and changed requirements. This future generation of customers will experience digital banking as the standard.
Community model with an open innovation approach
DB4Kids is available as Software as a Service via a standardized open banking platform. The architecture is independent of the core banking system. Thanks to the decoupling, the app can be modified flexibly and quickly while communicating with the underlying platform by using an open API. With this solution architecture, it can be implemented easily and quickly at further banks as well. At the same time, the Inventx open banking SaaS platform is also open to other digital banking solutions that can be developed and launched in a quasi-industrialized manner. Ideally, this kind of innovative solutions are created according to an open innovation approach: Several banks come together as idea providers and co-investors based on new customer requests and develop an innovative and digital solution for their customers together with their technology partner - in this case, Inventx.
Conclusion: With DB4Kids a new generation of end customers meets a new generation of technology. With standardization and open APIs, the financial industry will move to where SaaS solutions bring innovation, convenience, flexibility, cost savings, and rapid time-to-market.
The OpenBankingProject.ch is pleased about the innovative implementations of Inventx in open banking and is excited about all further activities. As a partner, Inventx brings its know-how to the initiative and drives standardization and open APIs with our community. Together we create further bricks for the future of open banking in Switzerland.