Swiss banks are increasingly lagging behind in the race for global digitalization. For example, it is still virtually impossible to open an account without a video call or a visit to a branch.Swiss banks active in the retail sector - the sector that services large customers - have fallen from 18th place in the 2020 global digital ranking to 27th place, writes the consultancy Deloitte in the "Digital Banking Maturity" study published today. In the first study in 2018, Switzerland still made it into the top five of the ranking. But while other markets have expanded their digital offerings, Swiss banks have fallen further and further behind over the years.According to the study, they have achieved an average "digital maturity level" of 39 points. This is below the global average (41) and far behind the digital pioneers (60+), which do not include any Swiss banks, says Deloitte."While real-time notifications, AI-supported savings tools and digital insurance have long been an international standard," the study says, "these services are missing from many Swiss banks."Nevertheless, there has been progress in "digital account onboarding": all but one of the Swiss banks analyzed now offer digital account opening. However, waiting times of several hours or days are not uncommon.International digital banks allow account opening with real-time checks supported by artificial intelligence in a matter of seconds. In Switzerland, however, a video call or even a visit to a branch is often necessary."Swiss banks have made some progress in opening digital accounts, but compared to foreign banks the process is still relatively complicated and slow," says Cyrill Kiefer, Banking Consulting Lead at Deloitte Switzerland. In countries like the UK, a selfie and a scan of your ID are enough to open an account.The smartphone is also becoming a primary access channel for banking transactions abroad: one example is real-time notifications on expenses. However, only about a third of banks in Switzerland offer this function. According to Deloitte, Swiss mobile banking applications also often lack basic functions that would promote customer interaction and loyalty.For the study, the consulting firm used the so-called "mystery shopping" method (method of measuring the quality delivered to customers) to analyze more than 1,000 digital banking functions at 349 banks in 44 countries, including 12 Swiss institutions with a total market coverage of over 80%. These are universal, cantonal, cooperative and digital banks from all linguistic regions, which makes the overview of the sector representative. (ICE BERNA)

Fonte notizia: awp/ats