Guide for Fintechs

In order to save fintechs 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 exxamines 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.

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.

SIX strives to keep the effort for fintechs with regards to consent management and connecting to bLink as low as possible. For this reason, SIX is offering "Consent-as-a-Service (CaaS)".

What does CaaS involve?

As part of the consent management to enable customer-initiated data sharing via bLink, a Service Provider issues a Provider Token to a Service User (find out what a Service Provider or a Service User is in our FAQs). The token authenticates the customer and contains their proof of consent for data sharing.

Under the terms of the bLink participation agreement, the Service User is obligated to store the Provider Token securely and to send it to the Service Provider for verification with each service call (API call). With CaaS, however, the Service User can commission SIX to store the Provider Token in a token store operated by SIX and transfer it to the Service Provider on their behalf.

In this way, SIX also fulfills part of the security-related criteria for the admission to the bLink platform on behalf of the Service User. The use of CaaS therefore not only reduces the logistical effort for the Service User but also simplifies onboarding to the platform.

As CaaS is a service offered by SIX independently from bLink, it is regulated in a separate service contract including a separate pricing. Please find following an overview of all contractual documents concerning CaaS:

In English

• CaaS Service Agreement
• Annex 1 – Admission Criteria
• Annex 2 – Price List
• Annex 3 – Service Level Agreement
• Regulation on Incident Classification

In German

• CaaS Servicevertrag
• Anhang 1 – Zulassungskriterien
• Anhang 2 – Preisliste
• Anhang 3 – Betriebsvereinbarung
• Reglement Incident-Klassifizierung

In French

• CaaS Contrat
• Annexe 1 – Critères d’admission
• Annexe 2 - Liste de prix
• Annexe 3 – Accord d’exploitation
• Règlement de classification des incidents

To find out more about how CaaS works from a technical perspective, check out our API documentation.

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.

The pricing on bLink applies as follows:

Onboarding

• One-time fee for the platform onboarding

Running

• Monthly participation fee
• Service Provider Pricing : Service Providers (find out what a Service Provider is in our FAQs) can charge you fees for the consumption of their customer data. These can be charged per connection/token/API call

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

Make sure to also check out the separate pricing for Consent-as-a-Service (CaaS) in the corresponding building block.

• 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.

After our kick-off we will invite you on 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! After gaining access to our bLink Support Portal and getting comfortable with our test environment, you’re now ready to sign our platform contract.

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

Once you’ve passed the admission test, it’s time for your go live on the platform.

Congratulations and welcome to the bLink community!