Guide for Banks

In order to save banks from cumbersome and costly bilateral contract negotiations with each respective counterparty, a uniform platform agreement regulates all relevant contractual and legal aspects between participants. The agreement is signed between SIX and each bank and fintech on bLink.

The platform agreement consists of a general participation agreement as well as several annexes deep-diving into special topics such as admission criteria, API applications, general service level agreement, price list, and data security.

Overview of all contractual documents:

In English

• Participation agreement bLink platform
• Annex 1 – Admission criteria
• Annex 2 – Account & Payment Service
• Annex 2 – OpenWealth
• Annex 3 – Service Level Agreement
• Annex 4 – Price List
• Annex 5 – Data Security
• Regulation on incident classification

In German

• Teilnahmevertrag bLink Plattform
• Anhang 1 – Zulassungskriterien
• Anhang 2 – Account & Payment Services
• Anhang 2 – OpenWealth
• Anhang 3 – Betriebsvereinbarung
• Anhang 4 – Preisliste
• Anhang 5 - Datensicherheit
• Reglement Incident-Klassifizierung

In French

• Contrat de participation bLink
• Annexe 1 – Critères d’admission
• Annexe 2 – Account & Payment Services
• Annexe 2 – OpenWealth
• Annexe 3 – Accord d’exploitation
• Annexe 4 – Liste de prix
• Annexe 5 – Sécurité des données
• Règlement de classification des incidents

To join the bLink platform, all parties need to pass a standardized admission process run by SIX to validate their readiness for the exchange of data on a business as well as on a technical level.

In contrast to non-uniform, individual due diligence processes, a standardized admission test not only is faster and much more cost-efficient for both banks and fintechs but also guarantees a high degree of security and stability on the platform. Furthermore, it creates confidence among all participants: For banks, it means connecting with trusted fintechs, while fintechs benefit from accredited access to a growing network of financial institutions.

The admission test for bLink can be categorized in two areas:

• General criteria: This examines general criteria such as the entry in a commercial register, potential sanctions or unethical corporate purposes, sustainability of the business plan etc. to prove your integrity and stability as a business.
• Security criteria: This examines whether certain security criteria are consistent with the platform’s requirements, such as if access to APIs, issued tokens and transferred data is protected accordingly.

Please note: FINMA-regulated banks don’t need to provide the respective evidence for the general and security tests as they’re already covered by the FINMA regulation.

Find out more about the platform admission test and onboarding in general in the FAQs.

The exchange of customer data between banks and fintechs or other banks always requires the consent of the respective customer. We facilitate this with a standardized, token-basen consent management (compliant with the the standard OAuth 2.0 authorization code grant flow). With consent management, customers can authorize Service Users connected to bLink to access and obtain specific data from Service Providers on bLink (find out what a Service User or a Service Provider is in our FAQs), giving them full control and transparency over who can access their data and what it is used for. Customers can also withdraw these access rights at any time.

In simpler terms, consent management allows your customers to integrate their banking data into a specific software application of their choice – online, in just a few seconds and always starting in the application the data is shared with. See how this looks like in our explanatory video:

EXPLANATORY VIDEO

To find out more about how consent management works on bLink, check out our API documentation.

We have also established a number of partnerships with Swiss connectivity providers who can provide you with consent flow management as a product (see building block API Management and Connectivity to bLink).

We maintain technological cooperations with leading core banking system providers and operators in Switzerland who ensure a standardized, coordinated API back-end integration and connection to bLink:

• Swisscom
• Finnova
• Inventx
• ti&m
• ndgit

Contact your providers or us for more information on how to connect to bLink.

Check out our section For Developers to see what tools your developers can work with.

Deep-dive into our bLink Docs, and get familiar with the technical requirements to join the bLink platform. Contact us to request access to the test environment to test and develop your use cases using our simulators. Get creative

Customer excellence is a core value for us. With centralized partner management and technical support capabilities, we promote rapid cooperation among the participants on bLink and accelerate problem solving as well as innovation within the ecosystem.

To enable engagement by all participants, we manage several boards either focused on the business or the technical side of open banking where everyone can actively contribute:

• Senior Board: Keeps the bLink participants’ senior management representatives up-to-date regarding the newest developments on bLink
• Business Working Group: Ensures the smooth running of the bLink platform and discusses operational topics with the bLink participants’ product owners
• Technical Working Group: Specifies technical requirements for bLink together with the bLink participants’ tech experts
• Implementation Board: Manages and operationalizes technical aspects of the platform including API lifecycles together with the bLink participants’ technical owners

On top of this, our support team ensures smooth and efficient onboarding and operations on the platform, be it in the case of technical incidents or the coordinated release of new API versions and general updates.

As Service Provider on bLink (find out what a Service Provider is in our FAQs), you have the option of monetizing your APIs and the provision of data. You can charge per API call, per customer registration (token issued) or with a connection fee. The respective invoicing and payment is centrally handled by SIX, so no effort is necessary by the Service Provider.

Service Providers can submit their list prices as well as special rates for specific Service Users via the following form:

In English

• Form for Submitting Service Provider's Prices

In German

• Formular zur Einlieferung der Service Provider Preise

In French

• Formulaire de soumission des prix du fournisseur de services

All Service Provider fees are published in Annex 4 Price List of the bLink contract (see building blocks Contract or Pricing).

As a Service Provider on bLink (find out what a Service Provider is in our FAQs), you have the possibility to define what are known as routing instructions for specific data consumers (Service Users on bLink). This means that you instruct SIX – as the bLink platform operator – not to forward API service calls from one or more data consumers on bLink to your APIs. With this, you prevent specific fintechs or other banks connected to the platform from accessing your customer data.

Data consumers affected by a routing instruction can use an API call to check which data providers potentially prevent them from accessing their APIs. However, with the bLink admission test, we ensure data access only by trustworthy third parties. Hence, we expect service providers to rarely make use of this option.

Routing instructions can be submitted via the following form:

In English

• Form for Routing Instructions Service

In German

• Formular für die Dienstleistung Routing Instruktionen

In French

• Formulaire pour la prestation "Instructions de routage"

The pricing on bLink applies as follows:

Onboarding

• One-time fee for the platform onboarding

Running

• Monthly participation fee
• Fee per application (e.g. AIS/PSS, OpenWealth), that is increasing with the number of Service Users on the platform available for the respective application (find out what a Service User is in our FAQs.)

You can find the effective fees and more information in Annex 4 Price List of the bLink contract:

In English

• Annex 4 – Price List

In German

• Anhang 4 – Preisliste

In French

• Annexe 4 – Liste de prix

• Check out what different capabilities and building blocks you need to consider when connecting to bLink.
• Take a look at our section For Developers to see the tools your developers can work with.
• Ready? Contact our product team to kick off your Open Finance journey.

How can you connect to bLink? Either do everything on your own or partner up with our established partners.

We maintain technological cooperations with leading core banking system providers and hosters in Switzerland that ensure a coordinated API back-end integration and connection to bLink. They will support you in your journey. Contact your providers or us for more information:

• Swisscom
• Finnova
• Inventx
• ti&m
• ndgit

After our kick-off we will invite you to our bLink Support Portal which will be your main communication channel with our team. Tell us who needs access and we will swiftly set up your account(s).

• Request access to our test environment in the bLink Support Portal.
• You’ll have to fill out and upload our connectivity template (Excel) and a SSL security certificate (PEM format). You can check here what kind of security certificate you need.
• We will verify your request and contact you with the details to access our test environment.
• Once you’re on the test environment, you can start developing and implementing our standardized consent flow according to the technical specifications in our API documentation.

Alright! You’re now ready to apply for admission in our bLink Support Portal. Following your application we will guide you through the different steps of the admission.

Hurray! After your successfull admission to the bLink platform we will send you the contract documents to sign.

It’s officially time for your go live on the platform.

Congratulations and welcome to the bLink community!