Unlocking AI-driven banking in Switzerland

Switzerland's banking sector has suffered a shocking decline: from global TOP 5 in digital banking maturity (2018) to 27th place (2024). Swiss banks now score 39 points versus the global average of 41 and far behind Digital Champions at 60. Zero Swiss banks qualify as Digital Champions. For a country synonymous with precision and innovation, this trajectory is both alarming and urgent.

The symptoms are visible to customers: only one-third of Swiss banks offer real-time spending notifications. Smart savings features using AI-based algorithms are nearly absent. While UK neobanks deliver hyper-personalized financial insights, Swiss banks struggle to leverage the wealth of customer data they possess. The gap isn't in basic functionality - Swiss institutions have largely modernized transaction processing, but in sophisticated customer engagement, personalization, and AI-driven value creation.

Behind this decline lies a cultural and structural challenge: strict regulations slow implementation to 18-month approval cycles. Foreign competitors (France, Germany, Italy) now rank ahead. The "Crypto Valley" advantage - 1,000+ fintech companies, progressive DLT Act, FINMA guidance—remains largely unrealized, with average banks offering crypto services to only 20-30% of clients. Switzerland has the regulatory framework and fintech ecosystem. What's missing is the orchestration layer to unlock their potential.

The digital banking transformation paradox is brutally simple: every bank knows what needs to be done, yet most struggle to execute. They have clear digital visions, substantial budgets, and ambitious roadmaps. What they don't have is a way to innovate rapidly without destabilizing the legacy systems that run their core operations. This is exactly what Finshape, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, helps banks with.

This execution gap between business ambition and technology capability is where new CEO of Finshape, Neil Budd, sees the greatest opportunity for banks worldwide.

Budd joins Finshape with 25+ years of banking transformation experience from Finastra, Accenture, and other global consultancies. His appointment signals Finshape's evolution from a Central European digital banking provider into a global player serving 100+ financial institutions across 44 countries. In 2025, the company generated EUR 55 million in revenue with 30% year-on-year growth, recently acquiring the Realtime-XLS loyalty platform and forging a strategic partnership with Dubai Islamic Bank, the largest Islamic bank in the UAE.

"Banks are looking for technology partners they can trust for the long term," says Budd. "The question isn't whether to digitalize, it's how to do it without creating more risk."

Orchestration: The Foundation for Customer Engagement

For large banks, wholesale replacement of core systems isn't just expensive, it's existentially risky. A single day of downtime can cost millions in revenue and irreparable damage to customer trust. Yet standing still isn't an option when fintech challengers launch products in weeks while traditional banks take years.

Finshape's answer is its agentic Digital Bank Operating System (DBOS), which sits as an orchestration layer above legacy infrastructure. Rather than forcing banks to rip and replace their core systems, DBOS orchestrates data from multiple legacy systems and delivers it to customers through modern digital channels—in milliseconds.

"The innovation layer has moved," Budd explains. "It's no longer happening in the core banking system. The digital platform has become the new innovation center of the bank."

This architectural approach delivers what Swiss banks specifically need: the ability to unlock sophisticated customer engagement without destabilizing proven infrastructure. Orchestration enables banks to unify fragmented data sources—the essential foundation for AI-powered personalization and the data-driven advisory services that wealth management clients increasingly expect.

Building the Data Foundation for AI Transformation

Nowhere is the execution gap more visible than in artificial intelligence. Most banks ran AI pilots throughout 2025, experimenting with chatbots and exploring use cases. The question for 2026 is: who can move from experimentation to production at scale?

"AI without a proper data foundation is just theatre," Budd notes. "Many banks remain constrained by fragmented data across legacy systems, which reduces AI's value. Our DBOS orchestrates that data, enabling production-ready AI applications not just pilots."

For Swiss banks, the opportunity lies in AI-driven wealth advisory, personalized engagement, and predictive services that match the sophistication their clients expect. The challenge isn't technology availability—it's accessing the unified data layer that makes AI actionable. DBOS provides this orchestration, enabling banks to deliver hyper-personalized experiences without the multi-year data warehouse projects that have stalled previous initiatives.

The company is investing heavily in agentic capabilities that accelerate customer outcomes, with early client engagements showing measurable business impact on both revenue generation and operational efficiency—critical metrics in a market where cost pressures and client expectations continue to intensify.

Beyond Vendor Independence to Digital Sovereignty

But speed without control is a Pyrrhic victory. Many banks that rushed into digital transformation found themselves locked into rigid vendor platforms that dictated their future roadmap and held their data hostage.

"This isn't about vendor independence," Budd emphasizes. "It's about sovereignty—the ability to decide where you're going next without being a hostage to someone else's technology."

Finshape's DBOS is designed for this reality. Banks get a comprehensive foundation that eliminates years of development work, but retain full ownership of their digital journey. Low-code capabilities allow business teams to build and iterate without complete dependence on external vendors. The platform is future-ready, adapting to new regulations and market demands without requiring wholesale replacement.

This sovereignty matters increasingly as FINMA's operational resilience requirements and global digital sovereignty mandates force banks to demonstrate control over their technology stack and data; particularly critical for institutions serving high-net-worth clients who demand both discretion and digital excellence.

Proven at Scale, Built for Partnership

For risk-averse boards evaluating digital banking platforms, track record matters. Finshape's 30+ years serving tier-1 institutions like Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, OTP Bank Group, and Banca Transilvania provide peer validation that matters in boardroom decisions.

But beyond technology credentials, Finshape differentiates on its partnership model. Unlike large global vendors that sell licenses and disappear, Finshape commits to 10+ year relationships with sustained senior engagement.

"For example, Dubai Islamic Bank's decision to partner with a European provider wasn't about geography," Budd reflects on the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates partnership. "It was about alignment. We listen to the bank's ambitions first. We don't impose one-size-fits-all solutions. And we stay engaged as those ambitions evolve."

For Swiss banks balancing FINMA's operational resilience requirements, wealth management clients' rising digital expectations, and competitive pressure from both global digital banks and specialized fintechs, AI transformation must happen without compromise. The decline from 5th to 27th place in just six years demonstrates the cost of incremental thinking in an exponentially changing market. Banks that successfully build the orchestration and data foundations required for AI-driven personalization, while maintaining Switzerland's reputation for security, stability, and discretion will strengthen the country's position as a global banking center. But the window for action is closing.