Switzerland’s Federal Council has issued a consultation paper on amendments required to its Banking Act and Banking Ordinance, to create an environment that helps fintech start-ups thrive in the country.
Postfinance, the fifth largest retail financial institution in Switzerland, has suffered a 24-hour outage on its online banking service – and doesn’t know the exact cause. About 1.7 million customers were affected by a total loss of electronic banking on Sunday and Monday morning (8/9 January). On Monday afternoon, things were back to normal as […]
SIX Payment Services says it has completed the enterprise-wide upgrade of payment terminals of Swiss Post four months ahead of schedule. The new “smart” payment terminals – Ingenico’s iSC250 – are “particularly good” and “among the most innovative ones on the market”, SIX says.
Arab Bank (Switzerland), a private bank in Geneva, has signed a long-term deal with Avaloq for the vendor’s complete business process outsourcing (BPO) services.
If you reduce it, they will come. Swiss ministry officials want to entice fintech firms and boost competition with new, lighter regulations. The nation’s finance ministry says the plan is to remove barriers to market entry and offer more legal certainty for the fintech space. Ministry officials say draft legislation could be sent to Switzerland’s […]
Global giant HSBC has deployed Avaloq’s flagship core banking solution, Avaloq Banking Suite, for its private banking operations. The system is now live in Switzerland and Luxembourg.
Axion Swiss Bank, a private bank focusing on asset management and consultancy, is migrating its technology to Avaloq’s BPO centre, Avaloq Sourcing Switzerland. On the way out is ERI’s Olympic core banking system.
Hinduja Bank in Switzerland has moved to a new core banking system, supplied by Avaloq, Banking Technology understands. Avaloq Banking Suite replaced the legacy Olympic system from rival vendor ERI. Avaloq declined to comment on the story. Hinduja Bank – part of an India-based conglomerate, Hinduja Group – was set up in the late 1970s […]
With the takeover of BSI by rival EFG International, Switzerland will see the creation of the country’s fifth largest private bank. Banking Technology looks at the IT implications, and the winners and losers of the deal. EFG is buying BSI from Brazil’s troubled Grupo BTG Pactual for CHF 1.33 billion ($1.38 billion). In its turn, […]
Switzerland’s new real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, SIC (SIX Interbank Clearing), is now live – opening the way for ISO 20022 usage. The new RTGS platform, SIC4, was introduced with the euroSIC system on 16 April 2015. The new SIC system went live on 14 April. With SIC up and running, migration to the new […]
Swiss post-trade specialist SIX Securities Services is planning to establish a central trade repository for derivatives transactions in Switzerland, using the London Stock Exchange’s UnaVista platform. The platform is being built to allow Swiss customers to report under the Swiss Financial Market Infrastructure Act, which is currently in parliamentary consultation.
SIX Swiss Exchange is to launch a new trading platform for corporate bonds, which it says will provide a better way of trading large blocks of less liquid issues. The new platform is due to launch in the first half of 2015.
Switzerland’s SIX Payment Services has begun distributing the country’s first contactless debit cards, through a partnership with local bank Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, based in Aargau. The project, which began in December, replaces the bank’s entire portfolio of 22,000 debit cards with dual interface V PAY cards that enable contactless and regular transactions.
Swiss post-trade company SIX Securities Services has allied with Belgium’s Euroclear Bank in a deal aimed at Swiss private banks and their high net worth customers.
Europe’s largest alternative trading venue BATS Chi-X Europe is set to target the Swiss equities market, following a deal with BX Swiss, an independent exchange. The deal focuses on cross-listings for exchange-traded funds, and trade reporting services – and is a direct threat to the incumbent SIX Swiss Exchange.
Switzerland’s SIX Group is planning to set up a central trade repository or derivatives transactions together with a group of Swiss banks, in a move the company says will increase transparency and traceability of derivatives transactions. The project is based on the Swiss Financial Market infrastructure Act, a new piece of federal legislation which seeks […]
Switzerland’s SIX Group will move to T+2 settlement starting on 6 October 2014, bringing Switzerland into line with the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia.
SIX Payment Services has apologised after a technical glitch caused a number of debit card transactions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to be accidentally booked twice on 22-23 January. Following the disaster, SIX managed to reverse 99.93% of the double bookings, with the remainder due to be reversed individually in the coming days. On average SIX […]
Switzerland’s Zürcher Kantonalbank has installed a performance monitoring system from latency management specialist firm Corvil to monitor the performance of its market making and FX business, including market data quality, transaction analysis and FX order flow.
Banco Itaú Suisse, the Swiss business of Latin American bank Itaú Unibanco, has chosen a private banking business system from software vendor ERI as part of a drive to make the Swiss unit a central hub for the Group’s European private banking business.
Speed is becoming less of a competitive advantage for exchanges as regulation and the need to support long-term investors comes to the fore, according to Christian Katz, chief executive at SIX Swiss Exchange.
