Project XBY

Europe & Central Asia · GDP rank #19

Switzerland

CH · CHF @ 1.2757/USD

Switzerland is a closed-loop A2A payments market — TWINT is universal for domestic P2P and increasingly P2M, SIC5 delivered retail instant on an ECB-comparable footing in August 2024, and cross-border CHF flows route mostly through SIX-operated channels. The country sits outside SEPA's instant-payments obligations and the long tail of card spend still flows through the classic Visa/Mastercard stack.

Tab 08

Pulse

The preceding ~90 days of macro, regulation, product, funding and milestone events. Each item is primary-sourced; no trade-press echo.

  1. 11 days agomilestone

    SIC5 Phase 2 onboarding crosses 63 institutions; ~95% of retail volume covered

    SIX reported SIC5 Phase 2 had onboarded 63 financial institutions covering more than 95% of Swiss retail payment transactions; the remaining banks must complete integration by the November 2026 FINMA deadline. The full-coverage milestone is the gating step for SIC5 to compete with TWINT for high-value retail and SME flows.

    • #sic5
    • #snb
    • #milestone
    • #instant-payments

    Source: FinTech News Switzerland

  2. 5 weeks agomilestone

    UBS integration of Credit Suisse retail payments completes

    Final Credit Suisse legacy payments customers migrated to UBS rails in late April. ~2.1m account closures or migrations were completed over 25 months since the March 2023 takeover; UBS reported the operational consolidation as complete in its Q1 2026 update. Credit Suisse no longer exists as an operating brand anywhere in the Swiss payments stack.

    • #ubs
    • #credit-suisse
    • #milestone
    • #integration

    Source: UBS

  3. 7 weeks agoregulation

    WEKO reaffirms 0.40% credit interchange cap through 2028 review

    The Swiss Competition Commission (WEKO) reaffirmed its voluntary agreement with Visa and Mastercard maintaining the 0.40% domestic credit interchange cap, in force through the next 2028 review. The decision keeps Swiss MDR among the lowest in Europe despite Switzerland's non-EU regulatory status and CHF non-SEPA position.

    • #weko
    • #interchange
    • #visa
    • #mastercard
    • #regulation

    Source: WEKO (Swiss Competition Commission)

  4. 2 months agoregulation

    SNB cuts policy rate to 0.25% — fifth consecutive cut

    The Swiss National Bank cut its policy rate to 0.25% at the March monetary policy meeting, its fifth consecutive cut. The cut reflects sub-1% Swiss CPI inflation and reduces NII compression risk for TWINT bank-owners marginally; CHF remains structurally appreciation-prone.

    • #snb
    • #macro
    • #regulation

    Source: Swiss National Bank (SNB)

  5. 2 months agolaunch

    TWINT signals exploration of Wero interoperability

    TWINT confirmed in a corporate update it is evaluating EPI/Wero interoperability for CH-EU cross-border P2P, the first technical indication of Switzerland joining the euro-zone instant-payments mesh despite non-SEPA-IPR status. A live corridor would compress remittance cost on the German, French, Italian and Portuguese cross-border worker routes.

    • #twint
    • #wero
    • #epi
    • #cross-border

    Source: TWINT

  6. 3 months agodata

    SNB SIC Instant statistics: 94M transactions in 2024, 68 active participants

    SNB SIC statistics for 2024 showed SIC Instant (SIC5) cleared 94m transactions in its first full year, with 68 directly participating institutions. The figure is small in absolute terms versus TWINT's 774m but the value cleared — CHF 1.24tn — reflects its B2B and high-ticket retail orientation.

    • #sic5
    • #snb
    • #data

    Source: Swiss National Bank (SNB)