Switzerland’s largest financial-services companies tomorrow will link up with important state enterprises. Together they aim to meet the digital future head-on.
The conference is slated for tomorrow Tuesday. UBS, Credit Suisse (CS), Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Raiffeissen and SIX will meet with the heads of the Swiss railways SBB, Swiss Post and Swisscom, the telecommunications company.
At their historic meeting in the main station of Zurich, the companies aim to launch a joint organization: a team that will develop a single digital identity for Switzerland, short: E-ID.
Safe Online Services
With the product, Swiss citizens will be able to use online services safely and easily. The government wants to make it happen quickly and last week decided to enact the relevant legal conditions enabling an electronic passport by 2019.
The government also said that the private sector will have to come up with the necessary technology for the electronic passport. And that’s where UBS, SBB, Swisscom and the other large businesses come into play.
SwissSign
Several solutions are already available, mainly provided by the banking sector. UBS has its customers sign contracts electronically since March 2017, and CS and Swisscom are also interested in this technology provided by SwissSign, a startup that will also be represented tomorrow.
Swiss Post and SBB however have their own products ready. The so-called Swiss ID is based on Suisse-ID, a technology presented by the government seven years ago, which however failed to make the breakthrough. Further potential solutions are provided by foreign IT giants, including Apple ID.
