If Eric Syz gets his way, Swiss banking will soon have a central platform to store client data. Initial talks have already taken place, says the owner of Bank Syz in an interview with finews.asia.

Eric Syz, besides banking, you’re also interested in art. You have works of Swiss artists Fischli & Wyss. They once asked the question: will luck find me? A question that you are asking yourself too?

Each one of us has a different concept of happiness. Thus, the question is similar to the one about wealth. I believe that he who finds fulfillment in what he does will be happy. Thus, I’m very happy.

So banking can make you happy still?

I can only answer for myself. At Syz, we believe in what we’re doing. And we enjoy doing it. Banking as an industry has a raison d’être: it provides the flow of money and as such remains the backbone of the capitalist system.

A new study has shown that bankers are discouraging their children from following in their footsteps. Both of your sons though are bankers.

As a family, you can give your children love, self-confidence and a good upbringing. Everything else, the children will have to achieve themselves. Our youngest son first made a career in chemistry. But at one point he said he wanted to go into banking. I told him: why not, get yourself a job to learn the business.

And?

He started out at a big bank and learned the business of investment banking. Last February, he joined the Swiss team at Syz. The other son had always been interested in finance and now works in private equity in Hong Kong.

You had to promise your father not to get into the same business as him. He managed a large textile firm.

The business that our family was in at the time had become extremely difficult. The industry as a whole moved to the East in the 60s and 70s. The textile industry faced another structural change after being industrialized in the 19th century. My father’s advice was understandable – we faced a new era.

In banking, everyone’s talking about industrialization.

Due to its importance for the capitalist system, the pressure on banking to turn industrial came much later. Now, the pent-up pressure is being released, starting with the digitization of banking processes. If every firm does it individually, it will become very costly.

The industry ought to cooperate in the digitization process?

IT is no feature with which you can put yourself apart. In future, it will only be about content – about what banks have to offer their clients.

«A central client-information-center would massively reduce the complex onboarding process»

Therefore, the trend in Swiss banking is to open the companies up and to standardize business processes. There’s a similar idea for the treatment of client data.

Which is?

The question is whether we, in Switzerland, shouldn’t have a central, unified client-information-center for compliance issues. It would contain all information about a client irrespective of which firm he banks with. With such a system, we could massively trim the complex onboarding process.

Is this a project under consideration?

There have been initial talks – I can’t say more. But the advantages are tempting: Switzerland could become the Swiss fortress, with customers certain that their data are being stored safely. The Swiss financial market would take the lead here.

Isn’t client information the holy grail of Swiss banking?

It only concerns the specific data of a client. The database would have to be independent of the banks.

A sort of super bank for client data. How do you think such a concept could work?

Stock exchange operator Six could take the lead. Customers would enter their client information data personally. The company, with which the customer wishes to establish a relationship would get access to the data after receiving a password provided by the client. That way, the privacy of the client remains untouched.

«As a businessman, I have to be interested in mechanisms that give me more time to take care of my core business»

An independent, central place for storage of client data would help banking institutes to concentrate on their core business and to become more competitive. It would help the reputation of our industry and the quality of services.

Which forces in the market are promoting the idea – the same that are calling for a super-bank?

One of the two big banks is a promoter, but also the private banks. I’m a descendant of an industrial family and such issues are close to me. That’s why I have taken to promoting industrialization projects.

As a businessman, I have to be interested in mechanisms that give me more time to take care of my core business.

That makes sense. But since the financial crisis, hardly anybody is acting in concert.

Of course there are differences of opinion and diverging priorities. Precisely because many banking executives are occupied with achieving a competitive advantage for their companies and with achieving personal goals and ambitions. Private bankers have a different attitude and I don’t say that because I'm one of them.

These companies are used to think in generations and are destined to take such projects onboard. But you’re right: it is easier said than done.

Eric Syz, 60, is the co-founder and CEO of Syz Group. In 1975, he joined Guyerzeller Bank as an apprentice, before moving to S.G. Warburg (today a unit of UBS) in London (from 1977 through 1979). From 1981 to 1984, Syz worked as an investment banker at Paine Webber (another UBS unit) on Wall Street. Subsequently, Syz returned to Switzerland and joined Lombard Odier, for which he worked from 1984 through 1995.

Together with Alfredo Piacentini and Paolo Luban, Syz launched Banque Syz & Co. in 1996. After a restructuring and the departure of partners, Syz is focusing on two business segments: private banking and asset management (Syz Asset Management). Syz Group has 500 employees worldwide and manages 36.3 billion Swiss francs (at the end of 2016).