Back in September 2020, leading Switzerland-based financial infrastructure provider SIX, and LUXHUB, an established Open Banking enabler headquartered in Luxembourg, entered a strategic partnership with the mission of facilitating and further accelerating the adoption of Open Banking in Switzerland. The two players share a combined vision when it comes to Open Finance and now aim to accelerate the transformation of financial services together, while also catalyzing the increased development of innovative technology-driven solutions in the sector.
Aware of the advent of the API economy and wishing to dive into the world of Open Banking, SIX launched its ‘bLink’ platform in May 2020 in Switzerland. By enabling banks and Third-Party Providers (TPPs) to rapidly integrate new functionalities into their offerings through the use of APIs, this Open Banking hub continuously promotes innovation and therefore indirectly provides end-customers with new banking experiences.
‘The exchange of customer data between financial institutions and third-party providers via the secure and trusted platform of SIX creates a win-win situation for all participants and offers numerous opportunities for new services and new customer relationships,’ underlines Marco Menotti, Head Banking Services and Member of the Executive Board at SIX Group.
On the other hand, LUXHUB was founded upon the firm belief that Open Finance will totally reshape the financial services industry Europe-wide. The fast-growing fintech, created in Luxembourg in May 2018 by four major banks, has been acting as a key catalyst for the next innovation-driven evolution of the financial sector for the last three years.
By combining firm banking foundations with innovation and sector-leading technical expertise, LUXHUB has rapidly emerged as a key driver of the Europe-based financial sector’s evolution towards Open Finance.
As explained by Jacques Pütz, CEO of LUXHUB, ‘our technology provides a robust platform for launching the innovative products and solutions that will redefine Europe’s financial sector in the years to come.’
By leveraging LUXHUB’s proven technology, SIX was able to rapidly evolve and improve their Open Banking Hub. The partnership has effectively helped to establish a standardised, efficient, and sustainable route towards Account Information Services (AIS) and Payment Submission Services (PSS), and is currently being expanded upon by launching additional APIs, such as OpenWealth.
SIX was therefore able to scale up its API service offerings and, at the same time, introduce innovative, proven, and viable use cases from Europe to its Swiss clients.
Enabling financial institutions to develop better experiences and additional services for their clients
By providing the seamless integration of APIs, technical barriers preventing the entrance of numerous players into the Open Banking sector are lifted.
‘In the current Open Banking era, the ease and standard of integration is key for adoption. Technical barriers, lack of executive sign in, and costly, inefficient processes all represent substantial blocking points,’ highlights the CEO of LUXHUB.
‘Through this strategic partnership, we have been able to provide solid assurances to partners (financial institutions and third-party service/software providers) with regards to both the ease and security of the technical integration aspect of account information and payment initiation services.’
The newly redefined portal, developed hand in hand by the LUXHUB and SIX teams, enables potential users to view the available use cases and APIs, and try them with test data in a dedicated Sandbox.
Additionally, LUXHUB’s ‘Consent-as-a-Service’ offering enables SIX to provide security functionalities to third parties, which significantly reduces efforts to onboard to bLink and paves the way for faster scaling of the platform.
To ensure the success of the project, both teams have adopted a collaborative approach, creating strong relationships between the various stakeholders – which ultimately benefits the end customers. LUXHUB’s motto – ‘Innovation imposes collaboration’ – has once again proved to be meaningful and the two companies will continue to work together to bring new Open Finance use cases to their respective markets.
Within the fast-emerging open era of financial data, this strategic partnership enables both companies to accelerate their ambitions of catalysing a collaborative path towards better financial service provision to the end customer and a more competitive playing field in the provision thereof.
Open Banking Survey 2021
LUXHUB has recently launched its new Open Banking survey, with a focus on the current state of this fast-emerging sector, the potential impact it will have on the financial services industry moving forwards, and its most valuable use cases.
Want to take part, share your Open Banking knowledge, help to increase awareness, and build a more digital and innovative financial services industry? Click here.
About Alexandre Keilmann
Alexandre Keilmann is the Content Marketing Officer at LUXHUB, one of Europe’s leading Open Finance hubs. Prior to joining, he worked as Editor in Chief at a Luxembourg media and events company for eight years, focusing mainly on Finance and Tech, and therefore dealing with trendy topics such as RegTech, Open Banking, digital transformation etc. Today, as part of LUXHUB’s Marketing Department, he brings his experience and creativity with the mission of further enabling the development of the LUXHUB brand, by drafting unique educational content and useful resources destined to all players within the financial services industry.
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