Swiss Arch Rivals UBS and CS Support Fintech Program

The Swiss financial services community has finally agreed on a program designed to help fintech startups establish their business in Switzerland. The initiative has even gathered the support of arch rivals UBS and Credit Suisse.

A string of Switzerland's most powerful financial services companies has joined hands to make the country a hub for fintech companies, Credit Suisse (CS) said in a statement yesterday. The two biggest banks have launched a program called 'Kickstart Accelerator', together with Swiss Life, Ernst & Young (EY) as well as Swisscom, the country's biggest telecommunications company.

The five companies used Hanover's Cebit IT exhibition to present the program aimed at helping fintech startups to start their business in Switzerland.

The first leg of the program is due to start in the summer and aims at developing promising business ideas in Zurich, CS said in the statement. It is mainly focused on wealth management, digital identity and blockchain, for which Switzerland offers location advantages.

The main step forward is the merging of forces of the big players in Switzerland. The program has partnership agreements with the two interest organizations, Swiss Finance Startups (SFS) and Swiss Finance and Technology Association (Swiss FinteCH), as well as numerous exponents of the industry, foremost of course the five companies who are the driving forces behind the initiative.

Whether the going together of the bluechip companies will yield the expected benefits is yet to be seen – Switzerland is lagging other financial services hubs.