Connecting a Swiss cantonal bank to the open-banking ecosystem

Connecting business applications with established banking services

For many businesses, accounting and banking remain separate activities. Account transactions must be retrieved, reconciled and reflected in accounting systems, while payment instructions follow a separate banking workflow.

A Swiss cantonal bank sought to simplify these interactions by making selected banking capabilities accessible through SIX bLink, Switzerland’s open-banking platform. The initiative required more than exposing additional APIs.

External business applications needed secure, standardised access to account information and payment submission services. Behind those interfaces stood existing core banking systems, established integration processes, network security boundaries and operational requirements.

The challenge was to bridge these environments without unnecessarily modifying established banking applications, while enabling a reliable service suitable for everyday business use.

Norify’s contribution: architecture through implementation

Norify’s principal solution architect worked within the bank’s integration team, combining solution architecture with hands-on implementation and technical coordination. The contribution covered several closely connected areas.

Designing the integration architecture

Norify defined and developed the integration approach connecting external SIX bLink services with the bank’s internal banking capabilities.

The architecture introduced a dedicated integration layer to bridge standardised external APIs and existing banking services. This separation supported the introduction of new digital capabilities while retaining the bank’s established systems and integration infrastructure.

Implementing AIS and PSS integration

Norify developed the integration components supporting the two principal open-banking capabilities:

• Account Information Service (AIS): Enabling authorised business applications to retrieve banking information for account visibility, transaction synchronisation and accounting reconciliation.
• Payment Submission Service (PSS): Enabling connected business applications to initiate payment instructions through the bank’s banking infrastructure.

The work involved banking integration requirements and ISO 20022 payment and reporting interfaces, including payment initiation, status reporting and account information.

Building and deploying the integration service

Norify implemented and deployed a dedicated adapter microservice within the bank’s Swisscom-hosted OpenShift environment.

This required connecting the application layer with the surrounding infrastructure and addressing the technical boundaries between the internal banking platform and externally accessible open-banking services. The delivery combined application engineering with practical knowledge of containerised deployment and enterprise integration environments.

Enabling secure external connectivity

Norify worked with the bank’s technical teams and infrastructure partners on the connectivity requirements for exposing the integration through the enterprise API gateway infrastructure.

This included coordination around ingress, networking and Apigee connectivity in an environment governed by banking security and operational requirements. The objective was to make the services accessible through the intended open-banking channels while respecting the bank’s established security boundaries.

Coordinating delivery across organisations

The integration crossed several organisational and technical boundaries: the bank’s internal integration teams, its infrastructure provider, the open-banking ecosystem and the external business application providers.

Norify contributed to translating technical requirements across these parties, resolving integration dependencies and carrying architectural decisions into working software. The work extended beyond an architecture proposal to practical implementation and deployment.

From implementation to business adoption

The integration was successfully introduced into production, enabling business customers to connect supported business applications with the bank through SIX bLink.

Its success is demonstrated by continued production use across an established base of business customers. The APIs are actively supporting real business banking and accounting workflows. The delivered capabilities enable:

• Less manual data exchange: Business applications can retrieve account and transaction information directly through standardised interfaces.
• More integrated payment workflows: Payments can be initiated from connected business software rather than requiring separate manual entry.
• Better support for reconciliation: Banking information becomes accessible to accounting applications through a consistent integration channel.
• An extensible foundation: The bank has an operational integration with the Swiss open-banking ecosystem that can support further business use cases and partner connections.

The continued use of these services provides tangible evidence that the integration moved successfully from technical delivery into sustained business operations.

What this project demonstrates

Modernising a bank does not necessarily mean replacing its established systems. Significant value can be created by connecting those systems to new services through carefully designed integration boundaries.

This engagement demonstrates Norify’s ability to combine banking domain expertise, solution architecture and hands-on delivery in a regulated enterprise environment.

The result is a production service supporting real business customers and connecting traditional banking infrastructure with the wider digital business ecosystem.