Harmonization and digitization of Swiss payment traffic

The Swiss financial center will continue to drive forward the harmonization and digitization of payment traffic in the coming years. The existing schemes, processes, formats and receipts will be continuously simplified and standardized or replaced and new ones will be introduced. The aim is to make seamless payment processes even simpler and faster in the future. In addition, the entire value creation chain, from invoicing to payment, will be digitized and automated in a sustainable manner, which will improve the processing quality, among other things.

The aim of these measures is to keep pace with market requirements and to remain competitive both nationally and internationally. The digitization of payment traffic, which is of great importance for the entire Swiss economy, makes a decisive contribution to this. Payment transactions support all national and international business transactions and thus make a material contribution to Switzerland’s economic output.

In particular, the focus is on the further expansion of the functionalities of the eBill digital invoice and the introduction of instant payments (real-time transfers) in Switzerland. This is because instant payments are beginning to take hold worldwide, especially in Europe (Switzerland's most important trading partner).