Author: Stefan Knaus

Stefan Knaus worked for a Swiss universal bank for ten years and gained extensive experience in private banking and private client business, including building up his own client book in investment and financing. He has been working in consulting at BEI since October 2020 and completed his Master's degree in Banking and Finance at the University of St. Gallen in summer 2023 while working. Stefan is passionate about the future of banking, digital innovations, football and road cycling, among other things.

A current look at Open Finance in Switzerland

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Open finance is becoming increasingly important in Switzerland, but is still at an early stage compared to other countries. A recent survey by OpenBankingProject.ch shows that the maturity level of open finance in Switzerland is currently rated as low to medium. At the same time, pressure is growing due to new European regulations (including PSR, PSD3, FIDA) and innovative business models, which will also influence the Swiss market in the long term. In this article, Stefan Knaus provides an overview of the current status, key challenges and the opportunities that open finance presents for the Swiss financial industry.

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All, Data, Digitization, News, Nicht kategorisiert, Open Finance, OpenBankingProject

Potentials and challenges of the Swiss E-ID (2/2)

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Switzerland will provide electronic proof of identity (E-ID) for Swiss citizens in spring 2026. The underlying trust infrastructure is based on the Self-Sovereign Identity architectural approach. These developments offer significant opportunities but also challenges for the various economic sectors in Switzerland.
In this second part of a series of blog posts, Stefan Knaus describes the proof of value of the OpenBankingProject.ch on the topic of “Use of Swiss E-ID”. The focus of this article is on the business implications of using the Swiss E-ID for the business architecture of the project participants and the options for Swiss banks regarding participation in the Confederation’s trust infrastructure.

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Potentials and challenges of the Swiss E-ID (1/2)

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The Swiss Confederation will provide electronic proof of identity (e-ID) for Swiss citizens in spring 2026. The underlying trust infrastructure is based on the Self-Sovereign Identity architectural approach. These developments offer significant opportunities for the various economic sectors in Switzerland but also challenges in the effective implementation and use of verifiable credentials. In addition to the use of the Swiss e-ID as proof of identification for opening a bank account, participation in the Confederation’s trust infrastructure offers further potential for Swiss banks. The e-ID can be used in other customer processes and significantly improve the customer experience. In addition, banks can also issue their own proof of identity on the Confederation’s trust infrastructure (Source).
This is the first part of a two-part blog post series on the Proof of Value of the OpenBankingProject.ch on the topic of “Use of Swiss E-ID”, which took place from October 2024 to February 2025.

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All, Data, Digitization, News, Nicht kategorisiert, Regulations, technologies

Retrospective of the 11th member event of the OpenBankingProject.ch

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On November 13, the members of the OpenBankingProject.ch met for the eleventh time to discuss current developments in the field of open banking in Switzerland and to take a look into the future together. The event offered exciting insights into the latest advances and chal-lenges in the sector. In this blog post, the most important highlights and insights of the day are described.

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Data, Digitization, News, Nicht kategorisiert, OpenBankingProject, Regulations, technologies

Workshop series “digital customer proximity”

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OpenBankingProject.ch is currently organising a series of workshops on the topic of “digital customer proximity”. Around 40 participants from 30 companies from the financial sector and beyond are examining various target images and use cases on how banks can use concepts such as open banking or embedded finance to position themselves closer to their customers. The aim is to support end customers with digital service access outside of banking and to assist them with banking data, products or services. In this blog post, Stefan Knaus presents the workshop series, the results of the first events to date and the content planned for the future.

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Recommended role profiles in the context of open banking for Swiss banking groups

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The third and final part of this series of blog posts examines the suitability of strategic role profiles in the context of open banking (individualist, producer, distributor, and platform) for Swiss banking groups. The article illuminates that the size, business environment and geographical focus of the individual financial institutions have a significant influence on the choice of a suitable open banking strategy. It also presents business models of the future and analyses how big banks, cantonal and regional banks and private banks could position themselves with their service offering in the future.

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Strategic Role Profiles in the Context of Open Banking for Swiss Banks

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In the context of Open Banking, four different role profiles can be distinguished that banks can assume: Individualist, Producer, Distributor and Platform. The role profiles are differentiated with regard to the distribution and creation of services and allow banks to put together a tailored, new business model in the individual banking areas. In the second part of this three-part blog post series, the individual role profiles will be described in detail and their impact on a bank’s business model will be illustrated.

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Implications of Open Banking for the Business Model of Banks 

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In order to implement Open Banking, the European Union has been pursuing a regulatory-driven approach with PSD2 since 2018. In contrast, Switzerland is currently one of the few countries like the United States, Argentina, South Africa, and China to pursue a market-driven approach. However, last December, the Swiss Federal Council addressed Swiss financial institutions with a clear message and wants to accelerate developments around Open Banking. The first part of this three-part blog post series presents the impact of Open Banking on the business model of Swiss universal banks.

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Cross-Company Data Exchange in a Cross-Industry Trust Network – Added Value for Customers, Companies and Partners! 

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More extensive business cases such as opening a bank account or an account with a FinTech require several minutes of time each for a low-value-added customer experience – wouldn’t it be great if you could skip all the tedious steps relating to data collection during onboarding and start right away with the advisory service or the effective satisfaction of your core needs? These and other questions have been considered for a little more than half a year as part of a workshop series of the OpenBankingProject.ch (OBP) and discussed together with more than 30 companies from the Swiss financial industry. This article is intended to provide an overview of the background, initial delivery results as well as the current state of knowledge of the efforts within the OpenBankingProject.ch workshop series.

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All, Data, Ecosystems, Regulations

Sustainable Finance: A Step Toward the Circular Economy

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Sustainability is on everyone’s lips and now impacts all regions and sectors of the global economy. Increasingly, financial industry stakeholders, including customers, investors, suppliers and regulators, expect financial services providers to play an active role in financing the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. ESG criteria are a tool for companies to become more sustainable and to comply with the regulatory efforts of policymakers and regulators.

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