St.Galler Kantonalbank

With 38 branches in the cantons of St. Gallen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and in Zurich, the St. Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB) covers all of eastern
Switzerland. Branches in Munich and Frankfurt am Main complete the business network. Over 1,200 employees offer private and business customers comprehensive financial services. The reliability and discretion of a Swiss bank is of top priority in their business activities. 

The megatrends of regulation, digitisation and globalisation are shaping the financial world and leading to decreasing margins, rising costs and
increasing risks across the industry. Thanks to automation and digital networking, many processes can be simplified and made more convenient for customers. Services such as online banking or online commerce are opening up new opportunities and business models. At the same time, the risks of relocating processes and data to the Internet are increasing: IT security plays a particularly key role in the highly sensitive area of financial transactions.

The St. Galler Kantonalbank wants to further simplify the registration process for its web-based services with secure and innovative login methods, in order to lower the entry thresholds for customers. The digital identity SwissID, developed in Switzerland, is to be used for this purpose. This is intended to enable customers to access many of the bank's functions after logging on – initially this will relate to the management of online  mortgages. For customers, SwissID is very convenient, and the bank offers them the advantage of establishing a user's identity unequivocally.
However, in order to protect universal access from abuse, it needs to be well secured. Sven Bruss, Business Consultant Digital Banking at SGKB,  explains:

We wanted to offer our customers the new login with SwissID quickly, in order to increase the user-friendliness. At the same time, IT security is our top priority. 

The St. Galler Kantonalbank already used various components of the Airlock Secure Access Hub complete solution by Ergon Informatik, for example the Airlock Web Application Firewall (WAF). Trust in the solution tipped the balance for the decision to expand it further and to incorporate SwissID. ISPIN AG, a strategic business partner of Ergon, is the ideal partner for the implementation of the project and an Airlock specialist.