Everything about digitization in the financial industry

Five Cloud Myths about Core Banking Systems (Article 2)

In collaboration with Swisscom, a series of articles has been created to answer the typical cloud myths in a banking context. We will try to explain these together with three articles and give you simple and common cloud wordings to help you understand the cloud.

In today’s article, we will clarify Myth 1 and Myth 2:

Myth 1: The cloud always saves money

Myth 2: The cloud makes it easy for cybercriminals

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Five Cloud Myths about Core Banking Systems (Article 1)

In collaboration with Swisscom, we have created a series of articles to address the typical cloud myths in the banking context. We try to explain these together with three articles and give you simple and common cloud wordings to help you understand the cloud.

In today’s article, we clarify the current market trend and the different cloud models that are available.

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Properties of LLMs, weak points and improvement measures for the domain adaptation of applications

The transfer of the AI paradigm “Foundation Models” in the language domain leads to Large Language Models (LLMs), which can be used to communicate in natural language and can be used in a variety of ways for different tasks due to their “broad training”. However, this requires adaptations of the models for the specific application domains. In this second part of his blog series, Wilhelm Niehoff presents the three method areas of In Context Learning (ICL), prompt engineering and fine-tuning that are used for this purpose. By addressing and using the LLMs, however, design-related weaknesses such as hallucinations, lack of topicality and expertise in detailed topics occur. In addition to the three method areas, there are “up-to-date” approaches such as DSPy and TextGrad, which aim to relieve the user of the task of constructing prompts. Accordingly, the weaknesses are eliminated by adding further components that are coordinated by LLMs.

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Understanding Bitcoin as a productive asset: Part 2 

A Bitcoin-based financial system will necessarily be built in layers. This is because today’s financial system is also multi-layered and recognizes an inherent hierarchy of money-like assets. To properly assess the potential of Bitcoin as a productive asset, it is essential to understand the trade-offs that come with it. In the first part of this two-part blog post, Bitcoin was introduced as a novel monetary asset and the necessity for productive yield generation was discussed so that Bitcoin can take the next step in its evolutionary phase. In the second part, three perspectives on Bitcoin yield products will be evaluated concerning their trustworthiness and the associated risks and trade-offs. Based on these insights, the gold standard of a Bitcoin yield product will be defined and what can be concluded from this for banks and their customers will be explained.

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Workshop series “digital customer proximity”

OpenBankingProject.ch is currently organising a series of workshops on the topic of “digital customer proximity”. Around 40 participants from 30 companies from the financial sector and beyond are examining various target images and use cases on how banks can use concepts such as open banking or embedded finance to position themselves closer to their customers. The aim is to support end customers with digital service access outside of banking and to assist them with banking data, products or services. In this blog post, Stefan Knaus presents the workshop series, the results of the first events to date and the content planned for the future.

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Data strategy in connected business models

From 2019 to 2024, the global volume of digital data generated or replicated annually almost quadrupled – a trend expected to persist (Tenzer, 2024). Technology companies are demonstrating how data is being used to generate revenue that often dwarfs physical assets. Neglecting data can put companies at a significant disad-vantage in the future, leaving them behind data-driven competitors. However, many companies do not utilize the majority of their data and face issues such as data breaches and data silos (DalleMule & Davenport, 2017). The key is to develop and implement data strategies. This blog post presents a categorization for data strategies and their relevance for digital companies and banks in particular.

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What is Bitcoin’s next evolutionary step after the introduction of the Bitcoin ETF – and what do banks need to bear in mind?

Since the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US in January 2024, Bitcoin has become accessible as an asset to a broad institutional investor base. This marked a significant milestone on its journey as a monetary asset. The next major step in Bitcoin’s development as an investable asset is to unlock yield generation opportunities (similar to dividends on stocks or coupons on bonds). The first part of this two-part blog post introduces Bitcoin as a new type of monetary asset and the need for productive use of Bitcoin and analyses how initial approaches in this area led to the 2022 crypto credit crisis.

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The journey from open banking to embedded finance to contextual banking and the future role of banks

If you look at today’s bank customers, they are always digitally active in their respective living environments. McMakler provides an example of positioning in customers’ living environments. If people search for design ideas for self-built furniture on Pinterest, for example, McMakler displays real estate offers that match their known living preferences. This happens in the context of a cooperation between McMakler and over 400 banks. Under certain conditions, banks can therefore offer their services in the respective living environments of their customers. However, this option is only one alternative as to how banks or individual banking divisions can position themselves strategically. In Stefan Knaus’ blog post from October 24, 2023, we presented four different strategic role profiles in the context of open banking. Now we would like to take a look at current market developments and which use cases have driven banks forward. We will also classify the terms “embedded finance” and “contextual banking”, which are frequently used in this context.

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Large Language Models: Origin-Use-Further Development

Large language models (LLMs) have made a quantum leap in the field of natural language processing (NLP) over the last five years, both in terms of understanding (natural language understanding, NLU) and generation (natural language generation, NLG) in the development of communication with computers. With ChatGPT, the general public has also become aware of this. The possible uses in companies are beginning to become more and more relevant. A small series of articles will describe the emergence, integration possibilities in processes and effects of LLMs. In this article, the history of the development of LLMs up to their current status will be outlined, with the aim of presenting strengths, weaknesses and manifestations in the next article on this basis.

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Overview: Data value creation in companies

For a long time, everyone was talking about data. “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data” (The Economist, 2017) was the ubiquitous mantra. However, advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are currently dominating the media, driven in particular by generative AI such as ChatGPT, DALL-E and the like, which can create new content such as text, images or speech. These generated data instances are in turn created with the help of technology on the basis of enormous data sets (Touati, 2024). Accordingly, it is becoming increasingly relevant for companies today and in the future to deal with the topic of “data” as the basis for value-adding activities. The Competence Center (CC) Ecosystems of the Business Engineering Institute St.Gallen develops solutions for relevant practical problems and addresses, among other things, the use of data as a key role for business success in dynamic environments. This blog post provides an introduction to the research in the field of data value creation for companies at the CC ecosystems.

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Service Design in Business Ecosystems: How you can use the service blueprint in the context of business ecosystems and the relation to my research.

As part of his research at the Competence Center Ecosystems, Dennis Vetterling is developing artefacts for the conceptualization of value capture for organizations in business ecosystems. The objective is to provide managers with the basis for in-formed decisions in the context of value capture in business ecosystems. In this blog post, he introduces the service blueprint as a modeling framework for handling the topic of business ecosystems in his research and provides further thought fragments for their analysis.

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Study: Digitalization in Procurement Management

The digital revolution has reached the business world, and procurement management is no exception. The latest study by the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen, “Digitalization in Procurement Management”, sheds light on how profoundly digitalization is changing this area. This blog post summarizes the key findings of the study to shed light on the opportunities and challenges that digital transformation brings for companies.

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Positioning opportunities for banks in the context of digital assets    – A market observation

At the beginning of January 2024, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in New York approved the first Bitcoin spot ETFs for trading and distribution in the USA. The approval of ETFs in the US further contributes to the availability of digital assets on the broader investor market. Financial institutions can therefore increasingly assume that the demand for digital assets will change. How have banks in Switzerland positioned themselves in the context of digital assets and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each positioning? Based on observations and interactions in the Swiss market, these are categorized in this blog post.

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Are our jobs at risk?

The first part of this blog series described different ways in which AI can affect individual professions. To analyze the impact of AI on the Swiss economic sector, a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative study on the exposure of individual professions to AI was conducted using a task-based view. The second part of this article series summarizes the results of this study and presents implications for policy and management.

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Are Our Jobs at Risk?

As a result of recent developments in the field of AI, the impact of automation on the labor market has begun to be reassessed. Non-routine cognitive or manual jobs, long considered unaffected by previous technologies, are increasingly under threat from self-learning algorithms, leading many economists to argue that this time the impact on the labor market is fundamentally different from other technologies. This blog post describes different ways in which AI can influence the tasks of a profession.

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Research Area Business Ecosystems

As part of his research in the field of business ecosystems, Dennis Vetterling repeat-edly comes into contact with organizations that use the concept of ecosystems for their own purposes. In his work, two perspectives on ecosystems have emerged: a “company-centric” and a “customer-centric” perspective. In this article, Dennis Vetter-ling gives an insight into these two perspectives and an indication of how organiza-tions can use a combination of both in the context of a strategic analysis.

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Recommended role profiles in the context of open banking for Swiss banking groups

The third and final part of this series of blog posts examines the suitability of strategic role profiles in the context of open banking (individualist, producer, distributor, and platform) for Swiss banking groups. The article illuminates that the size, business environment and geographical focus of the individual financial institutions have a significant influence on the choice of a suitable open banking strategy. It also presents business models of the future and analyses how big banks, cantonal and regional banks and private banks could position themselves with their service offering in the future.

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Strategic Role Profiles in the Context of Open Banking for Swiss Banks

In the context of Open Banking, four different role profiles can be distinguished that banks can assume: Individualist, Producer, Distributor and Platform. The role profiles are differentiated with regard to the distribution and creation of services and allow banks to put together a tailored, new business model in the individual banking areas. In the second part of this three-part blog post series, the individual role profiles will be described in detail and their impact on a bank’s business model will be illustrated.

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Study results analyzing the needs of Swiss individuals for trusted data spaces 

To harness the potential of data to better target societal and economic needs and foster innovation, the Swiss federal administration is promoting the development and operation of trusted data spaces for its citizens. In order to identify the needs of the individuals of Switzerland in terms of data spaces and thus to involve the population in the process of developing trusted data spaces, the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen has developed a study in collaboration with the University of Lausanne. The following is a brief summary of the results of the study.

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Implications of Open Banking for the Business Model of Banks 

In order to implement Open Banking, the European Union has been pursuing a regulatory-driven approach with PSD2 since 2018. In contrast, Switzerland is currently one of the few countries like the United States, Argentina, South Africa, and China to pursue a market-driven approach. However, last December, the Swiss Federal Council addressed Swiss financial institutions with a clear message and wants to accelerate developments around Open Banking. The first part of this three-part blog post series presents the impact of Open Banking on the business model of Swiss universal banks.

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This was the Open Banking Summit 2023

After the successful Summit 2022, the doors opened again on August 24th at Google in Zurich for this year’s Open Banking Summit 2023. With over 100 participants and top-class speakers, the OpenBankingProject once again proved to be one of the enterprise networks in the context of Open Banking. This blog post summarizes the content of the Open Banking Summit 2023.

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Research Area Distributed Ledger Technology

The Competence Center Ecosystems of the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen develops solutions for relevant problems from practice. In the context of this blog post, the overall research goal of the re-search area Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is presented. This research goal is to develop a frame-work that demonstrates and supports the methodological approach of DLT implementations to enable companies to adequately address relevant requirements of the implementation process of a DLT.

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Research Area Business Ecosystems: Presentation of the current research project: Conceptualizing the accumulation of value (value capture) through a framework

Within the Competence Center Ecosystems of the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen we develop solutions for relevant problems from practice. For this purpose, we use scientific methods within the framework of a consortium research project. This paper gives an insight into the current research project in the research area Busi-ness Ecosystems. Here, a framework for conceptualizing the accumulation of value (value capture) is developed.

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