Switzerland's trump card after abandoning banking secrecy is privacy – especially as data scandals show governments and big corporations running roughshod over personal data, Citi's Swiss CEO Kristine Braden tells finews.com.
Kristine Braden, why should Switzerland plant its flag as a hub for data privacy?
Data privacy is the new banking secrecy. Moving from secrecy to privacy and valuing and protecting that is something Switzerland can distinguish itself in when the rest of the world is running roughshod on all of your information – just look at Equifax, or Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. We need to build on the historical strengths of Switzerland with a new value proposition to keep us at the top.
What are the banks’ role in this?
Banks are still the most trusted institutions in the world. We don’t want to lose that, and the easiest way to do so is to misuse data. The Swiss are the best in the world at managing peoples’ information meticulously. How do we turn that into a value proposition in the future where we are not allowing anyone to misuse that? That comes down to laws and regulations, but also to discretion and trust.
Is Switzerland in a position to do this, technologically?
Switzerland doesn’t have to be the technologist in this, they just have to apply it effectively. What we’re missing is the interplay between the public and private sphere. In cybersecurity, it is basically the good guys vs the bad guys, meaning the fraudsters, criminals, actors who are threatening the financial markets. Those who are on the right side of that equation should work together.
How would that work in practice?
You have individual banks securing themselves as well as financial counterparties working together to be secure. I would urge the Swiss government and agencies to think about how to protect anyone who is located within Switzerland and operating – whether cloud services, data centers, financial systems, transactions – and almost do a wrap-around to enhance the industry’s own defenses. If we add an additional layer of government-led security and intelligence, I think it would be very difficult to penetrate, and I think that would be very valuable in the future to distinguish the country.
Is Switzerland moving quickly enough on that?
I think that’s the challenge here: the digitized world moves much faster than our traditional systems allow. You have to apply to a foreign regulator to even cooperate for cross-border prosecution issues for example. That simply doesn’t work in a digital world where the data or money could be stolen in a minute. The speed of response has to change.
Is the finance industry doing enough in terms of cybersecurity?
It depends on where you rank in the pecking order of banks. Big banks have billion-dollar programs around data privacy and cybersecurity. The problem is that we’re only as good as the weakest link. Switzerland has a lot of medium and small banks. Its incumbent on us as a system to protect each other. We all need to be align and work together.
How would you rank Bern’s responsiveness in addressing cybersecurity of the financial system here?
I know people care and are listening. The big question is where it ranks on the list of national priorities. I would like to say it should rank a little higher. If Switzerland can move from physical security to digital security, I think we will have something to offer.
Kristine Braden has been the country officer for Switzerland, Monaco, and Liechtenstein for Citi since 2015. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she is the highest-ranking woman in Swiss banking and a nearly 20-year veteran of the American bank. Braden is part of the management at the Association of Foreign Banks in Switzerland as well as a board director at the Swiss Bankers Association. She has worked extensively in Asia and Latin America as well as Europe. A passionate advocate of workplace diversity, Braden is head of Advance, a Swiss network devoted to women's empowerment in business. She began her career as a relationship manager with Deutsche Bank in New York.
