The Future of Open Banking Payments: Opportunities for SMEs
Quick Answer
Discover how open banking payments provide SMEs with new opportunities through lower costs, real-time payments, enhanced security, and better cash flow.
Open banking is reshaping financial services by enabling secure data sharing between banks and third-party providers. This innovation is opening new opportunities for SMEs in Switzerland and across Europe, allowing them to streamline payments, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences. In this article, we explore the future of open banking payments and how SMEs can leverage this trend to stay competitive and grow their businesses.
What is Open Banking?
Open banking refers to the practice of banks sharing customer data with authorised third-party providers via APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), with the customer’s consent. This creates a connected financial ecosystem where payment providers, fintech companies, and businesses collaborate seamlessly.
In Europe, open banking is driven by the EU’s PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2), which mandates banks to provide third-party access to financial data, fostering innovation and competition.
Opportunities for SMEs with Open Banking Payments
1. Lower Transaction Costs
Open banking payments eliminate the need for intermediaries such as card networks, leading to reduced fees. With direct account-to-account payments, SMEs can lower transaction costs, particularly for recurring payments or cross-border transactions.
Swiss Example: A Lausanne-based subscription service can offer open banking payments to reduce costs compared to traditional credit card transactions.
2. Faster Payment Settlements
Traditional bank transfers can take several days to process. Open banking payments facilitate real-time transfers, improving cash flow for SMEs by reducing payment delays.
Fact: The European SEPA Instant Credit Transfer allows businesses to receive payments in seconds, enhancing liquidity and operational efficiency.
3. Improved Customer Experience
With open banking, customers can make payments directly from their bank accounts without entering card details, reducing friction during checkout. This streamlined experience leads to higher conversion rates for online stores and e-commerce businesses.
Insight: Integrating open banking solutions such as Klarna or Revolut offers Swiss SMEs faster and more convenient payment options for customers.
4. Enhanced Security and Compliance
Open banking payments leverage strong customer authentication (SCA), ensuring secure transactions and reducing fraud risks. SMEs benefit from these robust security measures, building trust with customers and minimising chargebacks.
5. Access to Financial Insights
Open banking enables SMEs to access real-time financial data from multiple bank accounts through a single interface. This data integration supports better financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting, giving SMEs a clearer view of their cash flow and financial health.
The Growing Importance of Open Banking in Switzerland
Switzerland has begun embracing the open banking movement, although at a slower pace than the EU. However, Swiss financial institutions are increasingly collaborating with fintech providers to develop open banking services, providing SMEs with access to cutting-edge payment solutions.
Swiss Financial Landscape Example: The SIX Group, Switzerland’s financial infrastructure provider, is developing an open banking framework to encourage greater interoperability between banks and third parties.
Challenges for SMEs Adopting Open Banking Payments
While the future of open banking payments is promising, SMEs may encounter some challenges:
- Regulatory Variations: SMEs operating across borders need to navigate different regulations between Switzerland and the EU.
- Customer Awareness: Educating customers about the security and benefits of open banking is crucial for widespread adoption.
- Integration Costs: Although open banking payments reduce transaction fees, SMEs may need to invest in technology for seamless integration.
The Future of Open Banking Payments
Open banking is paving the way for innovative payment solutions, such as Request-to-Pay (RTP), which enables businesses to send real-time payment requests to customers. As more fintech providers enter the market, SMEs will have greater access to customised financial services, such as embedded payments and BNPL options, enhancing their competitive edge.
Conclusion: Seizing Open Banking Opportunities
Open banking payments represent a game-changing opportunity for SMEs, offering lower costs, faster transactions, and enhanced security. By adopting open banking solutions, Swiss businesses can provide better customer experiences and improve cash flow, setting the stage for sustainable growth.
As the financial ecosystem continues to evolve, SMEs must stay ahead by leveraging open banking tools to remain competitive. Early adoption of these solutions can provide a significant advantage in meeting both customer expectations and operational needs.
Related Resources
Scalemetrics helps Swiss SMEs act on decisions like this before market conditions shift. Our corporate tax and VAT compliance services and outsourced CFO team give finance directors the senior expertise to move first.
Sources & References
Open Banking in Switzerland: Where Opportunity Meets Regulatory Complexity
Open banking — the regulated sharing of financial data between banks and third-party providers via standardised APIs — has reshaped payments infrastructure across the EU under PSD2 and its successor PSD3. Switzerland, sitting outside the EU regulatory perimeter, has taken a market-led rather than regulatory-mandated approach. The result is an ecosystem that is genuinely innovative in pockets but fragmented in ways that create operational headaches for Swiss SMEs trying to build coherent financial infrastructure.
The Swiss B2B open banking landscape in 2024 is shaped by a handful of key developments. The Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) have driven IBAN-based QR-invoicing adoption, which now covers the majority of Swiss corporate invoicing. The bLink platform, operated by SIX, provides a standardised API gateway through which fintechs and corporates can access account data from participating Swiss banks — a genuine open banking infrastructure, though participation remains voluntary. And an increasing number of Swiss banks are offering proprietary API access to corporate clients with sufficient negotiating weight to request it.
For Swiss SMEs, the practical opportunities centre on three use cases. First, account aggregation: pulling real-time balance and transaction data from multiple bank accounts into a single treasury view, eliminating the manual download-and-consolidate process that consumes finance team hours weekly. Second, payment initiation: triggering bank transfers directly from ERP or accounting software without re-keying data into e-banking portals — reducing input errors and accelerating payment runs. Third, cash flow intelligence: feeding live transaction data into forecasting models to generate rolling liquidity projections that update continuously rather than on a weekly finance meeting cycle.
What Swiss SMEs Must Consider Before Adopting Open Banking Solutions
Opportunity and implementation readiness are different things. Swiss SMEs evaluating open banking solutions must assess three dimensions before committing to a provider or platform.
Data sovereignty and banking secrecy: Switzerland's Bankgeheimnis (banking secrecy) provisions and the revDSG (revised Data Protection Act, in force since September 2023) impose strict requirements on how financial data is stored, processed, and transferred. Any open banking provider handling Swiss SME account data must demonstrate FADP-compliant data processing, Swiss or EU data residency, and clear contractual data processing agreements. Generic EU-market fintechs that have not adapted to Swiss regulatory requirements pose both compliance and contractual risk.
Bank participation coverage: the bLink gateway does not cover all Swiss banks. If your primary banking relationship is with a cantonal bank or a private bank that has not joined bLink, your open banking options may be limited to proprietary API access negotiated bilaterally. Before selecting a treasury tool that depends on open banking connectivity, map your banking relationships against the current bLink participant list.
Integration with Swiss accounting obligations: open banking data feeds are only valuable if they integrate cleanly with Swiss accounting software and the MWST (VAT) reporting cycle. Confirm that any solution handles Swiss MWST rate codes (8.1%, 3.8%, 2.6%) and supports Swiss chart of accounts conventions.
Open Banking Use Cases: Value vs. Implementation Effort for Swiss SMEs
| Use Case | Business Value | Implementation Effort | SME Readiness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account Aggregation | High | Low–Medium | High |
| Payment Initiation from ERP | High | Medium | Medium |
| Real-Time Cash Forecasting | Very High | High | Low–Medium |
| Automated Reconciliation | High | Medium | Medium |
| Credit Scoring via Bank Data | Medium | Low (provider-led) | High |
Open banking creates real efficiency gains for Swiss SMEs — but only when the underlying financial processes are clean enough to benefit from automation. Our financial controlling practice helps Swiss SMEs build the process foundations that make open banking investments worthwhile.
Pascal Stämpfli leverages over a decade of expertise in corporate finance and venture capital to scale and optimize businesses. A CFA charterholder with a Master's in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Pascal specializes in market & company assessments, strategy, and business value creation. Having assessed more than 1,000 companies for financial and strategic investors provides him with a sophisticated understanding of investor rationale and capital allocation. As the Managing Director of Scalemetrics and Managing Partner at COREangels Big Data & AI Europe, Pascal operates at the intersection of financial discipline and technological innovation.