BackFinancial Services
Digital trust at the heart of the financial services sector in Switzerland
Caution is the watchword: Most serious studies predict that the financial sector will be one of the largest adopters of new intelligent technologies, though not necessarily the earliest. Before deploying large-scale roll-outs of AI algorithms to optimize investment portfolios, virtual assistants, or chatbots for personalized customer support, or offering hyper-tailored financial solutions without sacrificing the human touch and emotional intelligence, it is crucial to proceed step by step. This includes ensuring that data confidentiality, equity, safety, and regulation are seriously taken into consideration from the early stages of implementation. The best way to achieve this is to launch an exploratory phase and test innovative solutions through Proof of Concepts.
Financial institutions need to take advantage of rapidly evolving technologies while still ensuring data security, regulatory compliance, and growing customer expectations
Banks are as synonymous with Switzerland as chocolate and mountains, backed by hundreds of years of experience managing the wealth of the world’s HNWI & UHNWI and as the financial arms of commodity trading compagnies. However, the recent past, has been much more challenging, as Swiss private banks (PBs) face regulatory obstacles to offshore banking and corresponding pressure on margins and profitability. If the Swiss financial centre wants to keep ahead of the game to retain its reputation has a global powerhouse some challenges need to be addressed. One the most significant ones are “digitization” particularly with the digital native millennials and GenZ , the upcoming of new regulations in the area of ESG impact, this will drive more changes to business models than any regulations in Switzerland have ever done before and last but not least how to attract and retain the talents.
Billions investment in AI technologies
- Banks have invested billions in AI and digital transformation initiatives, yet a significant number have struggled to diffuse and scale AI technologies across their organizations. The challenge isn't just in the amount invested but in overcoming foundational barriers like outdated core systems and a lack of a clear AI strategy.
Fintech sector projected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2030
- The fintech sector, which currently represents a 2% share of global financial services revenue, is expected to explode to $1.5 trillion in annual revenue by 2030. This growth represents almost 25% of all banking valuations worldwide, highlighting the increasing influence of fintech on the traditional banking sector and underscoring the need for banks to engage with digital innovation.
Price-to-book ratio of banks remains at 0.9
- The banking sector's price-to-book ratio has remained flat at 0.9 since the 2008 financial crisis, indicating a historical gap with the rest of the economy. A technology-driven improvement in this ratio by just 0.1 could increase the sector’s value added by more than $1 trillion.
How we help our clients
Embracing digital transformation in finance
Enhancing customer experience and service levels
We assist financial institutions in enhancing the customer experience and accelerating gains through digitization. Clients expect a higher level of service and advice, featuring substantive conversations that offer in-depth insights. This is particularly true for investments in alternative asset classes and for digital-native high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). We believe that financial institutions should not restrict information to just the client's portfolio and account details. Instead, they should provide a holistic view that includes all private aspects such as lifestyle, family situations, personal projects, and emotional behavior. This approach will set advisors apart from the competition. Additionally, providing 24/7 access to the platform from anywhere is essential.
ESG impact: the challenge lies in data quality, not just data availability
We support financial institutions in reporting meaningful and comprehensive ESG data by leveraging our expertise in data collection strategies, data lakes architecture, and by developing a custom, robust framework for ESG data management. Recent studies have shown that most banks do not rely on external ESG ratings or scoring systems at all, and instead prefer to use proprietary solutions. OWT supports banks in building their own ESG scoring models based on specific KPIs. This enables comprehensive monitoring and real-time visibility, essential for a transparent communication strategy.
Embracing cloud and open banking
Embrace the future with cloud and open banking, where freedom meets innovation in financial services. Provided solutions foster an ecosystem of secure, interoperable services, propelling institutions towards flexible, customer-centric banking experiences powered by the cloud's agility.
Maximizing operational efficiency with AI
Unlock unparalleled efficiency in risk management, compliance, and operations thanks to AI. From reducing manual tasks and operational errors to enhancing real-time market risk analysis and instant payment processes, intelligent technologies can and will redefine financial services’ efficiency.
How we stand out
We link technology to business value for the financial services industry
BaaS meets the future
Banking as a Service (BaaS) revolutionizes the industry by empowering banks to build their own services through an open banking framework and first-rate API connectivity, leveraging the most advanced RESTful APIs and AI-enabled microservices, all while making the pivotal move to the cloud.
Tailored ESG Regulation integration in your business
The big challenge for banks lies not in collecting data but in analyzing and leveraging it through the construction of a robust and comprehensive framework of meaningful data and models, integrating new workflows into existing processes, reorganizing their data governance model, and relying on a single source of truth for data.
Phygital as a new era
Embrace the dawn of the phygital era, where connecting all customer touch points to deliver a 360-degree view becomes essential, and the urgency to shorten banking customer onboarding cycles manifests in the push for instant onboarding.
OWT turns GenAI into a reliable tool
OWT specializes into building precision GenAI solutions. Precision GenAI solutions follow strict behavioral rules and programmatic rail guards to ensure that AI-generated responses are accurate, reliable and suitable for highly regulated environments such as banks.
Get in touch with our expert
Vincent Lovato
Associate Partner,
Head of Financial Services
Head of Financial Services
Vincent is Associate Partner at OWT, in charge of the Financial Services practice for Switzerland. With over 25 years of experience in the banking industry, he has held senior commercial positions in the sale of banking software packages in Switzerland and abroad, closing very large deals worth several hundred million, both individually and as a team leader. He has also worked as a senior advisor on major strategic transformation programs for Swiss and international private banks.
His expertise focuses primarily on optimizing target operating models, operational excellence, improving banks' CIR, and IT and digital strategies. Passionate about architecture and design, Vincent has also completed several projects on his own account.
