In contrast to markets such as the United Kingdom or the EU, Switzerland has so far pursued a voluntary, market-driven approach to Open Finance, but is facing increasing international pressure. At the same time, Open Finance offers significant potential for new business models, stronger customer engagement, and maintaining the competitiveness of the Swiss financial centre. This white paper analyses national and international developments, market assessments, and expert opinions to derive concrete recommendations for advancing and scaling Open Finance in Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Council has called for measurable progress in standardisation and scaling within the context of Open Finance by the end of 2025 — otherwise, regulatory intervention may follow. Platforms such as SIX bLink, Finstar, and the Swisscom Open Business Hub, as well as industry associations like OpenBankingProject.ch, the Open Wealth Association, and SFTI, are shaping the emerging Open Finance ecosystem. Standardised APIs are already available in banking domains such as payments, investments, financing, and customer management. However, a comprehensive implementation across Swiss banks is still lacking. EBICS remains relevant in corporate banking but offers limited flexibility for new business models. Overall, this cautious market situation increases the risk that the Swiss financial centre will fall behind internationally.
The global Open Finance landscape has been highly dynamic in recent years. Countries like Brazil and the United Kingdom already demonstrate significant user adoption and billions of monthly API calls, while others, such as Australia, struggle with mixed customer interest. Success factors appear to include clear regulatory frameworks, practical technical standards, and tangible benefits for end users. Regulatory-driven approaches with strong central coordination, as seen in the UK or Brazil, have gained traction faster than purely voluntary models. However, examples such as Singapore show that market-oriented approaches can also succeed — especially when supported by state-backed infrastructures like SGFinDex and SingPass. Overall, Open Banking is increasingly evolving towards Open Finance and Open Data, meaning the inclusion of additional areas of customers’ lives and potential cross-industry data access. In Europe, planned regulations such as PSD3, PSR, and FIDA are driving this transition and addressing some of the shortcomings of PSD2.
For Swiss banks, Open Finance presents a range of opportunities: new revenue streams through Banking-as-a-Service and premium APIs, efficiency gains through standardised interfaces, and improved risk and revenue management. At the same time, the current inaction of many banks poses several risks. Disintermediation — the loss of the customer interface to third parties — and fragmentation through proprietary solutions could weaken the competitiveness of the Swiss financial centre and its institutions in the long run. While Switzerland already has a solid foundation of API standardisation, the actual market adoption and resulting innovative customer experiences remain limited. Current Open Finance use cases are heavily focused on efficiency gains and do not yet fully exploit Open Finance’s potential. Use cases such as Multi-Banking and Open Pension illustrate promising networking approaches and are creating momentum for Swiss stakeholders to engage more actively with Open Finance and its opportunities.
A market survey conducted for this white paper shows that Open Finance in Switzerland currently has a low to medium level of maturity — placing it significantly behind international markets. At the same time, a clear majority considers Open Finance crucial for the competitiveness of the Swiss financial sector. Key success factors include attractive end-user use cases such as multi-banking and pension cockpits, standardised APIs, and clear governance structures. Experts also emphasise the importance of innovative corporate cultures and a deeper understanding of the added value of using and managing data in connected value chains. Industry initiatives play a valuable role in orchestrating all market participants and providing widely accepted building blocks (e.g., API standards) for the long-term scaling of Open Finance.
Open Finance provides the Swiss financial centre with a strategic opportunity to leverage high-quality, standardised data to develop innovative use cases and create new customer experiences. It also represents an important step toward preparing for applications involving artificial intelligence (e.g., AI agents), which require both high data quality and open interfaces to generate substantial added value.
The implementation of multi-banking for retail customers currently represents an entry point for many market participants to engage more deeply with Open Finance use cases. This opportunity should be seized to develop customer-centric solutions in collaboration with innovative partners. Market participants must also recognise that Open Finance can only be implemented effectively through joint efforts. In this spirit, banks, technology providers, industry associations, and other relevant actors should collectively commit to implementing Open Finance APIs, thereby establishing the foundation for progress and scaling innovative use cases.
The Swiss government should act as a moderator and catalyst, promoting international interoperability and, if necessary, ensuring progress through clear mandates.
It should also support recent political motions toward Open Pension and actively involve the insurance industry and pension funds in the process.
Open Finance is not an end in itself but a key factor for a competitive Swiss financial centre. It will determine whether Switzerland continues to play a leading role in an increasingly open and data-driven world. Now is the time to use the regulatory freedom as an opportunity, to act strategically and collaboratively to build the foundation for an open and competitive financial ecosystem. The transition to the open finance era is not a distant vision of the future — it begins today.
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