Switzerland's largest bank has suffered a major technology glitch and lost Swiss clients' data. The slip-up is a setback for UBS' digital offering ambitions.
The digital safe deposit box «UBS Safe» isn't airtight: some clients in Switzerland who stored their account statements in the Swiss bank's product couldn't access them anymore, Swiss daily «Aargauer Zeitung» (in German) reported on Wednesday. The digital safe also reportedly lost personal data the clients had stored with UBS. The glitch affected 1,500 clients in Switzerland.
Fintech Setback
The bank confirmed the problem. «We established that some users of UBS' Safe application could no longer open some documents due to a technical problem.» UBS said it would offer clients who had been affected by the data spill bonus points in a reward scheme it operates, Key Club.
The malfunction represents a setback for the bank's attempts to offer clients a sort of high-security Dropbox-type application, which it launched two years ago in Switzerland. It also shows that UBS is some distance from successfully meshing digital or fintech services into its traditional banking offering.
