Valiant, the Bern-based regional bank, is one of the more innovative financial service companies. Juerg Bucher, the chairman of the bank, however seems more of an agnostic than a zealot in respect to digital solutions and warns that customers still want to talk to real people and not robots.

New software is helping established banks to make their back offices more efficient, while opening the industry to new competitors, which base their solutions entirely on digital technology. Valiant is one of the established banks quick to introduce new technology, with fully digital branches as an example.

Virtual Banks – Not for Bucher?

However, Valiant Chairman Juerg Bucher at yesterday’s annual general meeting warned the industry to listen to its customers.

«Personally, not as a chairman, but as a bank customer, I don’t ever want to be a client of a purely virtual bank,» he said in his speech. And, many people felt like him. Only 16 percent of 18- to 34-year-old people were happy to have accounts at Google or Facebook. And older customers were even less prone to do so.

Dividend-Carrying Securities

Naturally, people would get used to being advised by robots, Bucher said. But even in the future, a majority would still want a human being helping them with their finances. «They want real buildings, with bankers of flesh and blood, where they can get personal advice.»

Bucher also is wary of the growth prospects of the industry. He is however convinced that bank shares will remain interesting investment opportunities.

Financial services such as transactions, savings, investments, financing and retirement provisions were timeless and therefore, the industry’s earnings power likely were to remain solid. But: «Shares in banks therefore are held as dividend securities and not as growth titles.»

Update on Triba Takeover

Shareholders accepted the board’s proposals and elected Maya Bundt and Nicole Pauli to the board.

Bucher said that the bank’s offer to buy Triba Partner Bank was on course. Valiant has a stake of more than 80 percent in the bank.