At the heart of the digital revolution

For the second time, e.foresight (Swisscom's banking trend scout) has conducted a study on digital customer interfaces in private banking in collaboration with Professor Anjeza Kadilli and the Haute école de gestion Genève (HEG).

This benchmarking study analyzes the current and future functionalities of 30 private banking players (private and universal banks) in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Furthermore, a representative survey of 520 high net worth individuals (>CHF 1 million investable assets) was conducted to measure channel preferences. 

Four conclusions emerge from this study: 

• The most digitized institutions are clearly moving toward a hybrid interaction model, with over 80% of the measured services accessible via digital channels.
• About half of the players are sticking with a model that prioritizes physical interaction ("physical-first") for the time being. However, these players are also investing in new functionalities to improve the digital customer experience. 
• Among the HNWI customers, b y far the largest group (57% of respondents) prefers physical advice for strategic steps of the investment journey, but digital self-services for administrative and transactional steps. 
• The majority of banks are now active (at least with pilot projects) in generic use cases such as language translation. Wealth management-specific applications (e.g. market research, generation of investment proposals) are, however, only being pursued by 15-40% of banks.

For the Swiss financial sector to remain competitive and continue to innovate, political and regulatory authorities should define a legal framework that supports the development of FinTech and does not discourage innovation.