The finance arm of Swiss Post will launch its own digital bank in 2021 together with Switzerland's first online bank. The two companies have signed a joint-venture agreement.

The digital bank is part of the new strategy of Postfinance, details of which were released earlier in the autumn of 2020. At the time of the release of the strategy, the bank had made clear that the launch of the new offering was set for 2021.

Now, the company revealed its partner for its ambitious quest to get the project underway in such a short period of time. Postfinance will develop the digital banking application in a partnership with Swissquote, according to a statement released on Wednesday (in German).

Established Partnership

The choice of partner comes as no surprise given the already close cooperation between the two firms that goes back several years. The online trading offering of Postfinance relies on the platform provided by Swissquote, a Gland-based online bank.

Digital banking is also at the heart of the strategy of Swissquote and the development of such an application appears a logical extension of its offering, the statement read. It has worked on the app for some time already and the two firms will now continue this work within the framework of their joint-venture agreement.

Free-of-Charge Plus Premium Services

The solution will be similar in appearance to the ones offered by challenger banks such as Neon, with a free-of-charge basic offering and the option to buy premium services on a pay-per-use basis.

The transaction needs regulatory approval and the companies will report on their progress and release date in the first half of next year.