Retail Multibanking: Get on Board or Wait and See?

Authors: Sven Bruss

Multibanking for retail customers could mean a breakthrough for open finance in Switzerland. However, banks must make voluntary advance payments and open up data interfaces for their competitors.

Open finance is gaining importance in Switzerland. In December 2022, the Federal Council discussed the future prospects of open finance and set the following objectives:

1. Common standards

2. Opening up data interfaces

3. Scalable solution for access by third-party providers

Commitment of the industry in demand

The Federal Council expects financial institutions to implement the first concrete projects for open finance within a reasonable period of time.

In contact with more than one bank

Multibanking offers customers a secure, cross-bank view of their account relationships in just one application. For example, a bank client can have their account from bank A displayed in the e-banking application of bank B and vice versa.

Time to act

Pioneer banks will start project work as “first mover” in the second quarter of 2023. The goal is that a retail customer will be able to benefit from the open data interfaces of early adopters one year later.

Which role suits your bank?

As a decision-maker in a bank, the question is whether the position of "fast follower" or "first mover" is more appropriate given your strategic orientation. Perhaps you are also thinking about foregoing implementation for the time being or altogether. To make this decision easier for you, we have summarised the advantages and disadvantages in the following table as a guide.

Plan the end at the beginning

Before you start operationally in this area, you need an overarching open finance strategy as well as knowledge of the technological and operational prerequisites for a successful multibanking implementation. Our experts will be happy to assist you with experienced know-how and state-of-the-art solutions, from the elaboration of your strategic positioning to the implementation. We look forward to hearing from you.