Beyond Fintech - Eight forces that are shifting the competitive landscape: A Swiss perspective

This report from the World Economic Forum (Forum) and Deloitte studies the transformative role of fintech and other disruptive forces on the financial services industry. The Deloitte Swiss Executive Summary outlines the report that Deloitte and the Forum have developed on this topic.

The report uncovers eight disruptive forces that have the potential to shift the competitive landscape of the Swiss financial ecosystem:

• Cost commoditisation: Financial institutions are embracing new technologies to accelerate commoditisation of cost drivers. Although first projects are underway commoditisation has yet a way to go in Switzerland.
• Profit redistribution: The location of profit pools within and between value chains are shifting with new technologies.
• Experience ownership: Distributors will enjoy a position of strategic strength as owners of customer experience; manufacturers are expected to become hyper-scaled and hyper-focused.
• Platforms rising: Financial institutions are shifting to multiple-provider platforms as a channel to distribute and trade across geographies. A lack of sizeable platforms will slow this development in Switzerland as compared to the neighbouring EU market.
• Data monetisation: Financial institutions are starting to use a combination of data strategies to follow the lead of tech firms in data monetisation.
• Bionic workforce: New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will mean major shifts to financial institutions’ workforces.
• Systemically important techs: Financial institutions of all sizes rely on large tech firms’ capabilities.
• Financial regionalisation: Diverging regulatory priorities and customer needs is making way to tailored regional models of financial services. Swiss regulators are aware of the need to introduce technology-neutral regulation, as for example with the recently introduced “Sandbox” for start-up financial institutions. This might contribute to a competitive environment for start-ups in Switzerland.

Read the report to learn how these forces are impacting the financial services industry, including insights from seven industry segments: payments, digital banking, lending, insurance, market infrastructure, investment management, and equity crowdfunding. Please contact a Deloitte executive if you would like to discuss the report, and learn what these findings mean for your business.