SDS within Avaloq

Protect your sensitive client data.

Special Services

Outsourcing sensitive data

The trend of outsourcing IT operations and business processes has arrived in the banking industry.

By separating components of the value chain in operations, the challenge of keeping client’s data under control increases for banks, which directly impacts their ability to maintain the trust of their clients.

In Switzerland, customer information is protected by Swiss law. FINMA, as the supervisor of banking industry, has issued guidelines for possible outsourcing of business areas so that sensitive client data is still secured according to Swiss law (FINMA Rundschreiben 2008/7). Since Swiss law is automatically relevant to all outsourcing partners within Switzerland, there are no resulting special obligations for the bank. But what happens when they plan to outsource parts of their business processes to a provider located abroad?

The concept of SDS

The Avaloq Banking Suite is separated into two parts: the AFP (Avaloq Front Platform) and the ACP (Avaloq Core Platform). The ACP normally stores all information in its database, where both numbers and text are held in clear format. All banking operations staff have access to this information based on their access profiles. To allow for more complex set-ups for the operating model with the Avaloq Banking Suite, a new concept has been implemented by Avaloq to handle sensitive client data.

With the new SDS extension active, any information entered into the Avaloq Banking Suite will automatically be scanned in the AFP for client sensitive data. A hash key is generated for each piece of critical information like account numbers, client names, etc. In the AFP database the client data is stored together with the hash key, whereas in ACP in the client data fields only the hash keys are stored.

With this concept it is possible to separate the customer facing processes from the back-office processes. Since any client identifying data is only present in the AFP, installation and operation of this platform must be kept within Switzerland.

How to get SDS?

The functionality of SDS is available with ACP Rel. 3.7. The prerequisites for using the SDS extension are the installation of AFP Rel. 2.4.5 and migration of existing client data.

Profit from our expertise

Ayaval was part of the original development of SDS and we have already successfully implemented it at a large private bank in Switzerland. We look forward to supporting your implementation of SDS.

Want to know more about our SDS services?

Send us an email and will get in touch with you.