Universitäre Partnerschaften für digitale Sicherheit

Swissquote’s partnership with ETH Foundation’s Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC) is a long-term investment in digital trust. In a world where cybercrime, AI-driven fraud and data breaches are evolving rapidly, Swissquote chose to support ZISC with a CHF 2.5 million donation over five years to advance research and education in information security, fraud prevention and data protection. The aim is to help develop new methods to detect and counter digital threats and to strengthen the foundations of secure online banking for the whole ecosystem.

ZISC brings together leading researchers and industry partners to work on the next generation of security solutions. For Swissquote, the collaboration combines the bank’s deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge academic research, strengthening its approach to fraud detection and cyber resilience against increasingly sophisticated threats.

Die Entscheidung, das ETH ZISC zu unterstützen, spiegelt die sich entwickelnde Landschaft der Finanzkriminalität und den Bedarf an nachhaltigen Innovationen in den Präventionsmöglichkeiten wider. Traditionelle Ansätze bleiben zwar wirksam, aber Finanzinstitute müssen neuen Gefahren immer einen Schritt voraus sein. In diesem Kontext ist Swissquote bestrebt, intelligentere und effektivere Lösungen zu entwickeln, die einer zunehmend dynamischen Risikolandschaft vorgreifen und sich an sie anpassen.

ETH ZISC is an ideal partner to address these challenges. The centre combines scientific rigour in information security and adversarial systems with a strong track record of working with industry. It acts as a neutral research hub, collaborating with several financial institutions while maintaining full academic independence. For Swissquote, supporting ZISC is a way to treat fraud prevention as a collective challenge and to ensure that its own defences are informed by the best research available in Switzerland and beyond.

In August 2025, Swissquote formalised its commitment by signing a five-year agreement with ETH Zurich and confirming the CHF 2.5 million donation to ZISC. The partnership focuses on research into financial fraud in digital banking. This includes exploring secure and privacy-preserving mechanisms for sharing data and indicators related to fraudulent transactions, with the objective of improving early detection and collective response across the sector. Initial workshops brought together Swissquote’s Quantitative Research & Solutions and Information Security teams with ZISC researchers to map real-world challenges, agree on priorities, and define a structured research roadmap. Active research work is scheduled to start in 2026.

The collaboration is built on continuous knowledge exchange rather than one-off reports. ETH researchers, led by Prof. Srdjan Capkun, work on concrete problems inspired by Swissquote’s operational context, under strict data protection safeguards, and share insights, analytical results and prototypes through regular touchpoints and workshops. Swissquote experts in fraud prevention and data science discuss these findings, test ideas through threat modelling and controlled evaluations, and decide which approaches to take further. Not every research output is expected to be deployed, and there are no fixed promises on risk reductions or timelines. The true impact lies in stress testing assumptions, improving understanding of fast-evolving threats and integrating the most robust ideas into Swissquote’s long-term fraud resilience strategy.

At Swissquote, we don’t see digital trust as just another feature, it is a sovereign capability our clients deliberately choose. That is why, through the Swissquote Trust programme, we work closely with academia. It gives us perspectives that even a very mature bank could not develop alone: foresight, independence, and scientific depth.

Die akademische Forschung gibt uns frühe Einblicke in langfristige Risiken wie Post-Quanten-Sicherheit, gegnerische KI und Bedrohungen in der Lieferkette und ermöglicht es uns, die Kundschaft durch Antizipation anstatt durch Reaktion zu schützen.

Die Unterstützung von Initiativen, die das gesamte Ökosystem umfassen, ist ebenso wichtig. Betrug und Cyberbedrohungen sind systemisch, branchenübergreifend und von Natur aus global – keine einzelne Institution kann sie isoliert bekämpfen. Durch den Beitrag zu gemeinsamen Standards, Intelligenz und kollektiver Widerstandsfähigkeit trägt Swissquote dazu bei, das entsprechende Umfeld zu stärken, um die Kundschaft und das Vertrauen in die digitale Wirtschaft zu schützen.

This partnership is a concrete expression of Swissquote Trust: trust engineered by design, governed over time, and protected by sovereign choices. We anchor security in scientific rigour, invest ahead of major technological shifts, and convert research into operational controls governed within our framework, ensuring innovation never compromises independence, accountability, or client trust.

— Nestor Verrier, Chief Operating Officer