Swiss Banking and Digital Assets

“The crypto business is the low-hanging fruit. The fundamental change for banks lies in tokenized assets, stablecoins and new payment rails.”

“We had people within the bank working on Bitcoin and blockchain as early as 2014. Having a broad range of technical expertise in-house enabled us to translate our requirements into Avaloq’s front- and backends.”

“The decision to launch a crypto offering was driven by the recognition that the underlying infrastructure could provide a foundation for the broader DLT-driven transformation of banking services.”

“Having a fairly complete offering so early compared to the market allowed us to capture a new clientele of crypto-native holders, particularly focused on Bitcoin.”

“Over time, we expect cross-border corporate payments to become the dominant use case; the first corporates are onboarding now. To illustrate the potential: for a multinational European corporation, we recently executed a euro transfer to Ghana, a route that traditionally takes days and costs percentages. We settled it in eight minutes at two basis points.”

“As a private bank, you have to provide clients with access to the broadest possible range of investable assets. They must be able to invest in and divest from any asset class, and digital assets should be no exception.”

“Ultimately, the expertise we built created more value than any single crypto product. It helped us continuously onboard crypto-native clients and expand those relationships into traditional wealth management.”

“We started with the direct client business, which earned us credibility as a digital-asset specialist. That was the prerequisite for banks to even consider us in a B2B context. Direct clients still account for more than three-quarters of our revenues, but B2B is where we are growing fastest.”

“Accepting digital cash, such as stablecoins, requires capabilities beyond the basic technology stack needed for trading, including integration with fiat payment rails. Without careful planning, an organisation can ultimately find itself operating two parallel worlds.”

“FINMA’s early token taxonomy gave projects a common language and made the regulatory consequences more predictable. Direct supervisory dialogue was particularly important for banks, because it allowed them to clarify licensing, custody and AML questions before committing substantial resources.”