Leading Swiss private banks see digital trust as the key opportunity for competitive advantage

One month after our 6th Free and Safe in Cyberspace conference in Geneva, the annual Private Banking Day 2019 was held last week in Lucerne – organized by the Association of Swiss Asset and Wealth Management Banks and the Association of Swiss Private Banks – to reach the same conclusion: IT security and privacy constitute the key opportunity for Swiss private banks to build competitive and locational advantage.

After the $5.2 billion fine to UBS for allegedly helping French citizens evade taxes, plus similar fines for other Swiss banks, the Swiss ecosystem should seriously consider that – leveraging some unique expertise they have built in IT security since WW2 – the main business model of Switzerland which has been “providing UHNWIs and firms unique confidentiality against other nations’ tax authorities” could be complemented by “providing UHNWIs and firms unique confidentiality and security against competitors, hackers, snooping governments”.

The Private Banking Day 2019 clearly highlighted such conclusions in their official press release – “Efficiently combating cyber threats a key locational factor” – and the closing remarks of the President – “How can we protect confidentiality in the digital world?“.

The 6th Free and Safe in Cyberspace – held in Geneva, after Brussels, New York, Iguazu and Berlin – was organized by our Geneva-based Trustless Computing Association and its spin-off startup TRUSTLESS.AI, and participated by top IT security experts, public institutions and leading family offices and private banks and family offices, such as SYZ Group, PeakView and Point5 which, in the evening of day 1, discussed concrete plans to seize such great opportunity.

This new awareness by the main Swiss private banking associations confirms the timeliness and vision of our initiative to gather a few leading Swiss private banks to become their top clients’ digital trust providers through the creation of new ultra-secure human computing devices, Seevik Pod , and a new related Trustless Computing Certification Body, to independently certify radically unprecedented levels of confidentiality of communications and integrity of transactions, while at once preventing criminal abuse.