Can a non resident open a bank account in Switzerland?

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
21
How can a non Swiss bank hand out Swiss IBAN numbers?

22
They need to open an account with SNB for payment settlements, get a SIC number for it, and then "CH" + checksum + SIC number + their internal account number is essentially IBAN they can hand out to clients.

23
Please name just 5 other non-Swiss banks which do that for end customers.

I know a handful of people who opened an account with Sparkasse Hochrhein exclusively because it's not possible elsewhere. If you know alternatives, I'd be very keen to know.

24
Dude, you have problems with eyesight or comprehending english or what?

There was a link in my original message, I'm not repeating it.

25
In the UK you can open a bank account with a driving licence and proof of address; no questions about citizenship are asked.

26
Usually your comments are highly qualified, why so aggressive? I could return the exact same wording about "comprehending English" ("English" needs to be capitalised, by the way), but let me re-phrase my original question, which remains unanswered:

Imagine receiving a Swiss pension which is paid from the Ausgleichskasse in Geneva. There are two options:

Receive it into a Swiss account with a Swiss(!) account number in Swiss Francs OR Receive it into any account worldwide, but they exchange it into the currency of the destination bank at crappy fx-rates AND fees are paid by the recipient, so you lose quite an amount of money Clearly option 1 is better.

To be able to receive funds into a Swiss account, you need an individual Swiss account number which is in your own name . That's the case because the Ausgleichskasse will always use a reference like "Pension John Doe December 2018" or similar. The reference can't be influenced or changed.

Yes, the link you gave gives a list of banks who have an account with SNB and could issue individual account numbers, but in most cases they do not .

What some of these banks do is: allowing their customers to use the bank's Swiss account to indirectly receive funds, which is only possible if the sender uses a specific reference which allows assigning funds to the customer. Most specifically these are not individual account numbers, but account numbers used collectively and transfers depend on the reference.

As such I dare repeat my original question: Would you care naming non-Swiss banks who issue

individual (!) Swiss IBANs to their customers. Just as if it was a usual account with Postfinance, UBS or CS.

I really thought a smart guy like you would understand the original short question without this lengthy explanation.

27
You already recommended Sparkasse Hochrhein twice....is it suddenly not OK for this purpose.

Still I went to the list ivank linked and looked for non-Swiss postcodes since it seems difficult for you:

- Citibank

- Barclays

- Santander

- SEB

would be options.

28
It is OK for this purpose. Considering we're obvisously living on two different planets, I won't go into details as to why I would prefer to know some alternative offers, which do not seem to exist.

I can look for non-Swiss postcodes. It doesn't exceed my capabilities.

None(!) of the banks you suggest (I am aware you're talking about the American Citibank, British Barclays, Spanish Santander, and Swedish SEB) offer Swiss account numbers to private customers.

They might offer CHF accounts, which would be foreign currency accounts. That's not what I asked for, and considering the thread it's also not what the OP asked for.

The problem remains unsolved.

29
All those banks have a SIC number and went through the trouble of filling paperwork and following rules needed to maintain one. They have the technical capability to receive money via swiss bank clearing systems (the "CH IBAN" thing) even if they don't advertise it widely to random john doe's from the street or internet. Maybe you just need to ask nicely or know some people beyond clueless first line customer support drones.

Allergic reaction to dumb questions

30
I really wonder what's the motivation behind such inquiries. If it's for money protection it's not wise to just let the money sit in an account without interests first of all. Further, most EU banks covers clients assets with the general protection of 100k EUR, so just open a few accounts with different banks and you are 100% safe.

However I suspect it's always one of the two, either a support for a scam or sort of looking for crypt of thieves. Many scams are based on building the illusion based on common believes such as financial reputation of Switzerland. "Thieves" may look for places to store the money out of direct reach of the authorities they fall under, basically plan to runaway with the money in case they would become liable (which is no longer effective, I believe, but perhaps legends of anonymous Swiss accounts are still circulating).

Well there may be also the desire to show off, same like craving for a gold card having only ~3k EUR disposable income.

31
Crédit Agricole next bank (Suisse) SA "No fees if residing abroad"

https://www.ca-nextbank.ch/en/en/ope...nt-online.html

The Portuguese Santander Totta has an office in Zurich and Thônex. At the most non-prominent locations imaginable. Maybe they offer individual Swiss IBAN.

32
I’ll be sure to drop a note to Citibank returning my CH IBAN and telling them a random person on the internet says they don’t do this.

33

An example of motivation for a non swiss resident desiring a swiss bank account is somebody living in switzerland without permit (say a cleaning lady, or somebody washing dishes in a restaurant). This person would like to have a bank account near the place where he physically resides.

Does anybody know about https://www.cimbanque.com/ ?

It looks like they give bank accounts to non residents for a cost of 90 CHF/ trimester (i.e. 30 CHF /month). Minimum deposit is 5000 chf.

34

If they’re here illegally - which they would be without a residence permit - they have more to worry about than not having a bank account.

35

That is actually illegal.

Yea yea, unless you are Swiss obviously........

36
Didn't know. I have no permit either.

37

Yes i know that it is illegal.

But it was not the point of my post.

I was asking info about banking.

38
If someone is here illegally, why would they need a bank account?

Tom

39
... and would they have the minimum f5000 on deposit.

40
To do illegal transactions, such as possibly receiving their illegally earned wages from an employer illegally paying them without having registered them as employees.