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Postbank partners with Swissquote for the new banking app. It remains to be seen how the new offering will score with customers.
A new Postfinance app should help the bank get more customers.
Photo: Keystone
The competition is currently ahead. Online providers like Revolut, Neon and Yapeal or Credit Suisse’s new CSX banking app are already on the market. The idea: customers can carry out the most important financial transactions in one simple app. Postfinance has been working on a comparable product for some time, but is now in danger of being left behind. To prevent this from happening, Postbank is partnering with French-speaking online bank Swissquote. Together, the two banks want to launch a new banking app early next year. The new offer will likely include a payment card and an app.
“As part of our cooperation with Swissquote, we will be on the market a bit earlier than we would have been on our own.”
Isn’t Postfinance too late with that? Of course, it is important that the bank is present in the market as soon as possible with an initial offer, according to Postfinance. The pace should now increase thanks to the cooperation with Swissquote. “As part of our cooperation with Swissquote, we will be on the market a little earlier than we would have been on our own,” said Postfinance spokesman Johannes Möri. The decisive factor for the success of the application is that the offering sets new standards in terms of functionality or ease of use. The bank wants to score on two things: with Swissness and the widest possible digital offering.
British online provider Revolut has won hundreds of thousands of customers in Switzerland and has alarmed Swiss banks with low fees and easy handling. Rates have recently increased, but meanwhile local competitors such as Neon or the big banks have also penetrated the market: A few weeks ago, CS launched its CSX service. CSX is also free based on usage.
Swissness as an advantage
However, Postfinance believes in having an advantage over its competitors. Those who use Revolut today entrust their money to a bank with a foreign banking license, according to Postfinance spokesperson Möri. Postfinance and Swissquote, on the other hand, would have more than 3 million customers in Switzerland. “We can therefore constantly adapt our offering to local needs,” says Möri.
For Benjamin Manz, managing director of the comparison service Moneyland.ch, Postfinance has a chance despite the competition, even if the offer should come sooner rather than later. Because: “The banking market is still in its infancy when it comes to applications.” The design and functionality of the offer will be more decisive than the start time. “Besides ease of use, costs are also important. Postfinance and Swissquote have to offer something here if they want to expect a large number of customers,” says Manz.
Postfinance only launched new investment offerings in the spring. Post-financing clients should use them to invest their savings in securities. This allows the bank to earn more. But what does cooperation with Swissquote (the bank is strong in the online wealth business) mean for investment products? According to Möri, the latest cooperation with Swissquote has no impact on new investment offers. It is also not to be expected that the app offers a comprehensive online trading solution like the one Swissquote offers.
