The fintech firm, well-known in the wealth management community, says it is opening up to freelance developers.

Banking technology firm Avaloq is opening its doors to freelance developers, start-ups and other outside operators via a dedicated portal it has created as part of a drive to stay on the front foot amid intense fintech competition.

The Switzerland-based firm, which operates across a number of regions, said its portal - developer.avaloq.com - enables developers to commercialise its ideas and share results with their own peers as well as Avaloq's network, made up of 450 banks and wealth managers.

While some banks and financial firms are creating "incubators" and "innovation labs" to breed new, hopefully commercially successful ideas, an "open-source" approach is another ploy.

In using the portal, Avaloq said there is access to software and documentation, such as application programming interface (API) information and frameworks, to create user interfaces, which was previously only available to Avaloq customers. Questions and thoughts can be shared with peers via the portal, and developers can provide feedback directly, Avaloq said.

“There are two key reasons for opening the developer portal. Firstly, developers will contribute to a higher standard of financial services by adding new ideas and helping to further develop user experience on the basis of the industry leading Avaloq Banking Suite. In addition, banks will be able to make use of the joint innovation to enhance their digital client experience and augment products," said Thomas Beck, group chief technology officer at Avaloq.

Besides Switzerland, Avaloq has branches in Berlin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, Leipzig, London, Luxembourg, Paris, Singapore, Sydney and Zurich. It has development centres in Zurich, Edinburgh and Manila.