St.Galler Kantonalbank modernises its research management with FinfoxResearch

Fragmented systems, manual processes and increasing governance requirements are common challenges for many banks in investment research. St.Galler Kantonalbank set out to reduce this complexity by fundamentally modernising its research management. The result is greater efficiency, improved traceability and closer integration between research and the investment process.

The challenge: Complex research processes and the need for modernisation

Investment research forms the foundation for investment decisions, portfolio allocation and advisory services. Yet in many banks, research processes have evolved over many years and are spread across multiple systems, creating significant operational effort for maintaining, managing and distributing investment recommendations.

This fragmented landscape makes efficient workflows more difficult while increasing the demands for transparency, governance and regulatory compliance. As a result, many financial institutions are looking to simplify their investment research processes and establish a future-ready operating model.

St.Galler Kantonalbank faced a similar challenge. Its existing research management solution had reached end of life, prompting the bank to fundamentally modernise its research and recommendation management. Together with Finfox, the bank developed FinfoxResearch – a central platform that brings both disciplines together in one integrated solution.

Objective: One central platform for research and investment content

The project’s objective was not only to replicate the functionality of the existing solution but also to significantly improve usability and extend its capabilities.

Today, FinfoxResearch supports the entire research lifecycle – from maintaining instrument ratings and creating research publications to distributing content across multiple downstream systems.

The platform centrally manages:

• Instrument ratings
• Internal and external research assessments
• Recommendation lists for investment advisory
• Model portfolios and investment strategies
• Structured research publications and factsheets

Particular emphasis was placed on auditability, governance and traceability. Every change to ratings and recommendations is fully documented and can be tracked at any time – an essential requirement for compliance, internal controls and regulatory obligations.

«With the implementation of FinfoxResearch, we consolidated both internal and external research content onto one modern, central platform. Transparent traceability of changes and approvals, seamless integration with our surrounding systems, and structured management of investment recommendations were particularly important to us.»

Dominik Schmidlin, Head of Investment Strategy & Analysis at St.Galler Kantonalbank

Seamless integration into the bank’s technology landscape

A key success factor was the integration of the platform into St.Galler Kantonalbank’s existing IT landscape.

The solution was implemented as a containerised, web-based application using a modern React front end and an OpenSearch-based NoSQL database.

«Another key success factor was the seamless integration into the bank’s investment process. Model portfolios and investment strategies managed in FinfoxResearch provide essential building blocks for our investment workflows and integrate seamlessly with downstream advisory and execution platforms.»

Tea Schmid, Head of Advisory Processes & Systems at St.Galler Kantonalbank

Project delivery: Iterative, structured and collaborative

The project was delivered over approximately eighteen months, from the initial concept phase through to successful go-live.

During a series of joint workshops, the bank and Finfox defined the functional requirements, user roles and system interfaces. Implementation was carried out in six development waves, each delivered to the bank for testing and formal acceptance.

This iterative delivery model allowed the project team to introduce new functionality step by step while continuously adjusting priorities.

Overcoming complexity

Beyond the functional requirements, technical integration represented one of the project’s greatest challenges. Both St.Galler Kantonalbank and Finfox worked with modern technologies, placing high demands on architecture, interfaces and infrastructure.

The business complexity was equally significant. A large volume of instrument data, together with the modelling of different portfolios and investment strategies, had to be carefully structured and translated into user-friendly processes.

“Today, modern technologies – and increasingly AI –enable user interfaces to be developed relatively quickly. The real challenge lies in combining deep business expertise with process understanding to create solutions that deliver real value and fit seamlessly into users’ day-to-day work,” explains Frank Grössel, Product Owner at Finfox.

He adds: “The partnership was highly collaborative and solution-oriented throughout the project. This allowed us to make steady progress step by step and ultimately deliver a well-rounded solution.”

The result: Greater efficiency and a future-proof research platform

With the successful implementation of FinfoxResearch, St.Galler Kantonalbank has fundamentally modernised its investment research capabilities.

Today, the platform enables:

• Structured management of research content
• Transparent and fully traceable decision-making
• Efficient creation and distribution of publications and factsheets
• Seamless integration of research data into investment processes

This strengthens the connection between research, asset management and investment advisory while ensuring that research data is consistently used across the entire investment value chain.

At the same time, FinfoxResearch provides a future-ready foundation for continuously evolving research processes and workflows, positioning the bank to meet future requirements in investment research with confidence.