Online identification probably from March
Today, anyone who wants to become a customer at a bank still has to identify themselves at the bank counter. This will probably no longer be necessary from March 2016.
Digitization makes it possible to conduct almost all business conveniently regardless of location and time. This does not apply to opening a customer relationship with a financial services provider. Until now, the rule was that anyone wishing to open a business relationship with a Swiss bank or insurance company had to go to the branch to identify themselves and sign the documents. According to the draft circular 2016/XX "Video and Online Identification" of December 21, 2015, the Finma expected to now allow online identification as of March 2016.
Online account opening in less than 10 minutes
Swisscom is digitizing customer opening for banks with its new "Digital Identification & Signing" service, according to the telecommunications company.
Interested new customers only needed a terminal device with a front camera and a valid official ID for video personal identification. After entering personal data, the applicant is connected to a Swisscom identification expert. The expert then uses the camera function to take a picture of the customer and their identity card and identify them. Opening an account is said to take less than 10 minutes.
During digital identification, the ID features and the ID holder would be checked as at the border post. The system evaluates the authenticity of the official ID and compares the photo and the person. The software recognizes security features such as holograms, 3D images or watermarks and draws the employee's attention to any errors. In addition, the expert uses defined behavioral patterns to check the authenticity of the applicant in the course of the conversation in order to identify possible ID fraudsters. After identification, the data is transmitted to the bank via an encrypted, secure connection and deleted from the Swisscom systems. The bank then checks the legal and regulatory requirements (e.g., Money Laundering Act), as it does with conventional opening.
