UBS Center Newsletter July 2018

6 Historian Tobias Straumann drew a rather dark picture for the future of Swiss finance, whereas entrepreneur Christina Kehl stayed optimistic and focused on the opportunities of fintech. With these next steps, we can continue the success story of the Swiss financial center, Ermotti concluded. Digitalization, human capital, and banking secrecy Following Ermotti’s speech, Christina Kehl, Co- Founder and Managing Director at Swiss Finance Startups, and Tobias Straumann (University of Zu- rich) joined him for the second panel session of the day. Again, the experts disagreed on the question whether we are facing a caesura in finance. For Christina Kehl it is a historic turning point, because today the customers dictate how the business changes, something we have never experienced before. Ermotti admitted that the changes are remarkable, but he doubted that they are substantial enough to call them historic. Economic historian Tobias Strau- mann finally backed his colleague Joachim Voth, and added that the often-discussed risks of digitalization in his opinion are overemphasized in the media. Unlike other countries, Switzerland has a high level of human capital and the Swiss economy is therefore well equipped for technological changes. However, Straumann reminded everybody that a very different change hit Switzerland’s financial center particularly hard: #BetterTogether The panelists then touched on the importance of coop- eration and what it means for the small players. Ac- cording to Kehl, cooperation between big financial institutions and fintech startups often fails. The main reasons are the different business cultures and the legacy systems of big banks or insurance companies, both being obstacles for the implementation of new technology. It became clear from the discussion that there is a mutual dependency between big financial institutions and fintech startups. Building bridges between them is key for the future success of Swiss finance. “With the revocation of banking secrecy, the historic turning point has already happened. Technology will not help to stop the disrup- tion.” DIALOGUE & EVENTS Podium on the future of Swiss finance, about optimism and skepticism. Watch all sessions on www.youtube.com/UBSCenter