Swiss banks are very interested in the subject of cloud computing, but they have so far been reluctant to migrate their data to the cloud. This is because certain questions regarding the legal and regulatory frameworks remain unanswered. The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has therefore worked with member institutions, audit firms and cloud providers to draw up a set of guidelines containing recommendations intended to make it easier to move to the cloud. The guidelines are being published together with a video explaining cloud banking.
Comment by Dr. Marc Holitscher, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Schweiz
Swiss financial services institutions have recognized the great potential of cloud computing. They want to leverage modern technologies to improve cost efficiency, increase innovation capabilities and differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
So far, there has been some ambiguity about how existing legal and regulatory requirements should be interpreted and implemented. This is precisely where the Cloud Computing Guide of the Swiss Bankers Association comes in. It demonstrates how existing requirements can be translated into specific technical, organizational or contractual measures – or a combination thereof.
The tangible and practice-oriented recommendations of the Swiss Bankers Association provide clear rules of the road as to how the cloud provides the innovation platform for the future. This not only benefits individual banks, but also increases the competitiveness of the entire Swiss financial centre.
