Zurich, 18 March 2021 – Taking advantage of the increased need for digital client connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Julius Baer has prioritised its technology investments in the last months. The bank has now become one of the first wealth managers to provide a guided digital onboarding experience tailored to the needs of private banking clients.

Digital onboarding meets clients’ demand for easy account opening from the comfort of their own home or on the go. Moreover, the Julius Baer solution differs from existing banking applications as a wealth-management-specific implementation that does not involve industrialisation or a shift to a self-service process. It offers clients a convenient and speedy onboarding experience while facilitating the interaction with the relationship manager, who accompanies the client thoroughly through the process.

The solution, developed together with external providers, consists of two parts:

  • Video identification that enables prospects and clients to verify their identity via a video call – thus providing a digital alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings.
  • E-signature for prospects, which enables prospects to sign account-opening agreements electronically in the Julius Baer Assistant App in a secure, convenient, and legally compliant way.

In a first step, the complete digital onboarding has been rolled out for clients served out of Switzerland and the video identification part for clients served out of Luxembourg. The solutions are planned to be introduced to additional advisory offices and booking centres. This account opening service extends Julius Baer’s recently accelerated digital offering, which includes other new functionalities such as chat capabilities (BJB Chat and WhatsApp) and e-signature for existing clients.

Matthias Plattner, Head Channels and Innovation at Julius Baer, commented: “We are delighted to introduce a convenient, guided, digital onboarding solution for our clients, which is perfectly aligned with our personalised wealth management business. While personal relationships remain at the centre of excellent wealth management, we use digital technology wherever we see potential to improve the banking experience for our clients.”