The company: True Wealth
True Wealth is a Swiss Fintech that specializes in online wealth management. True Wealth AG was founded in 2013 by digitec co-founder Oliver Herren and physicist Felix Niederer. The two entrepreneurs have set themselves the goal of bundling their investment experience and making methods of scientific portfolio management available to a large clientele. Starting with a capital of 8,500 Swiss francs, investors can receive services that are only available in traditional private banking from significantly higher deposits. This is made possible by a fully comprehensive digitisation strategy and the avoidance of cost-intensive analogue processes. Today, digital wealth services are in demand from all age and income groups and a steadily growing number of investors in Switzerland rely on the services of True Wealth.
The Fintech company cooperates with two custodian banks, which take over the management of the investor accounts. After the client has issued an asset management order and the necessary checks have been carried out, automated investment in ETFs can be started once the funds have been received. The customer determines the relevant parameters in advance, such as his risk preference.
The challenge: Compliance without paper
True Wealth, like all companies in the financial services industry, operates in a highly regulated market. Due to money laundering legislation, there are various high requirements to be met. Previously, this was solved via the classic paper route, but True Wealth is now digitizing the corresponding processes. However, paper contracts mean a media break and a time delay. This means a loss of time for customers and at least three days pass between their decision and the actual investment. Once they have made the decision to invest, they do not want to wait several days in these volatile times until their investment is actually made. In addition, the media break also leads to more exits in the customer journey. Last but not least, every paper document means more manual work. It was therefore clear to True Wealth that this last analog step in the onboarding process should also be digitized. Additional complexity arises from the fact that, in addition to the asset management contract, contracts with the banks must also be concluded for the opening of accounts/deposits. The banks first had to be convinced of the advantages of the digital user experience and the security and compliance of a paperless solution.
The solution: Signing via SIM card
Experience has shown that interested parties are particularly interested in the evening or on weekends in the offers of True Wealth. Therefore, identification via a video phone call would be problematic for this reason alone. It also creates additional staffing requirements and possibly waiting times for customers. An alternative would be to outsource the entire identification process to an external provider. The latter was out of the question for True Wealth, as the company wanted to retain control itself and wanted to integrate the solution into its own platform in order to offer customers the greatest possible convenience.
With Swisscom’s fast-track solution, the customer can be identified and a clear statement of intent made via SMS. The procedure is based on the fact that, in accordance with the requirements of Swiss telecommunications law, one must identify oneself to obtain a Swiss SIM card and mobile phone number. Since True Wealth focuses on the Swiss market, customers usually have a domestic mobile phone number – if this is not the case and a customer does not own a mobile phone, the paper form is still possible as a fallback. However, this is in the single-digit percentage range. The vast majority of customers welcome the digital solution. For this purpose, a hash is created from the PDF, which is then signed by Swisscom, so Swisscom Trust Services never has any insight into the PDF document itself. If the customer has a Swiss SIM card, a one-time password is sent to him/her via SMS. If a customer has made a positive decision according to the contracts, he can sign them by entering the one-time password he received via SMS. This step is regarded as the declaration of intent and agreement to the contract, similar to signing. Swisscom checks the code assigned to a particular contract and issues the electronic certificate. This involves signing the transmitted hash and applying a qualified time stamp.
This signed hash is used by True Wealth for the signed document by having True Wealth add the electronic signature to the PDF contract document. This enables a contract to be concluded quickly and automatically – without any noticeable effort on the part of the customer. Another advantage is that customers are already used to such procedures from the multi-factor authentication used in online banking.
The result: Fast contracts, satisfied customers, increased conversion
With the new digital process, customers benefit from a seamless customer experience without media disruption. As a result, contracts can be concluded very quickly. Where this used to take up to a week, it is now possible for an investment to be completed on the day the contract is signed. The automated process is also independent of time and day. This in turn means that clients can sign contracts directly at the times (evenings and weekends) when they are most frequently involved in investment decisions. This also has a positive effect on True Wealth, in the form of an approximately 10 percent increase in the conversion rate. The paperless process also saves manual effort and thus costs associated with sending documents by post and the like. During the Corona pandemic, True Wealth recorded an increase in customers of over 30 percent. With conventional methods, the employees would not have been able to cope with this.
The integration of the Swisscom solution into the True Wealth platform also went smoothly from a technical perspective. This was ensured by good documentation and support from Swisscom technicians. Further cooperation is conceivable in the future, as True Wealth wants to expand its product portfolio and is open to international expansion. Swisscom Trust Services is a reliable partner for this purpose and is the only provider to have its signature solutions certified both in Switzerland (ZertES) and in the EU (eIDAS).
About True Wealth
True Wealth is the leading digital asset manager in Switzerland. It all began with a vision: to combine our investment experience with the scientific methods of modern portfolio theory in an online asset management system that is intuitive to use and offers investors full transparency. And uncompromisingly cost-effective, so that in the end there is more left for investors.
True Wealth AG was founded in 2013 by digitec co-founder Oliver Herren and physicist Felix Niederer as a Swiss public limited company with headquarters in Zurich. We are independent asset managers and a member of the Swiss Association of Asset Managers (SAAM).
About Swisscom Trust Services
Swisscom Trust Services is the only European provider to provide a qualified electronic signature in the legal areas of the EU (eIDAS Signature Ordinance) and Switzerland (ZertES Signature Act). As the leading provider of trust services in Europe, Swisscom Trust Services enables its partners to make pan-European digital innovations by providing identity-based services that can be executed completely digitally without media disruption. The signature service allows partners to easily add an electronic signature to their own business solutions, taking into account industry-specific requirements and compliance regulations. This provides end customers with a wide range of options that previously had to be done on paper, such as signing contracts, buying insurance, signing a contract of employment, applying for a credit card or sighting acceptance certificates. – legally compliant and digital.
Swisscom is the leading telecommunications and one of the leading IT companies in Switzerland. Swisscom offers business and private customers mobile communications, fixed network, Internet and digital TV and is also one of the largest providers of IT services in Switzerland.