He told me that they closed down 1700 accounts of American's this last little bit alone, and that they will be contacting and closing down the accounts of American's who are not married to Swiss within the coming months.
Now, I don't know what to make of this, but this is just what we were told.
Maybe it is just a case of misreading the memo?
Maybe read this thread for background. Maybe he was not wrong. The extra compliance being requested from the IRS is causing some Swiss financial institutions to cease dealings with US customers.
When we arrived in Switzerland in 2009 Zugerkantonal Bank already would not open accounts for American passport holders. It seems to be going further downhill.
Forgot to add that part. Long story short they gave the go ahead, and in five days I should be fine. But according to my wife he made the comment that he doesn't understand why a Government is treating it's citizen's like they are criminals. A girl in the office, the main one actually opening our account, said that on July 4th there were American's slamming their passports down at the Bern embassy and leaving. Not so sure about that one, sounds like heresay.
He also made the comment that he believes most American's that aren't married to a swiss, or have dual status, will be forced out very soon without being able to have any sort of account...
But the latter is just, his opinion after all.
http://www.amcham.ch/media/downloads..._im_clinch.PDF
In 2013 let's hope we don't see signs posted in front of the Postfinance similar to the one at the below link. US extra-territorial laws are making life difficult for ordinary Americans who dare to live and work abroad.
I hope that works out for all US persons, really.
But I will say, despite what is said today... lets wait till they become a bank and see if the support is still there.
JC
New PostFinance General Terms and Conditions (GTC):
"b) Special rules for payment transactions as a public
service:
PostFinance can prevent customers from using payment
transaction services in accordance with postal legislation (public
service) if carrying out the service would be contrary to national
or international provisions related to financial market, money
laundering or embargo legislation or if there is a danger of
serious legal and reputational damage.
A customer may be partially or fully excluded from the named
services in particular:
– if PostFinance or its employees would be breaching internatio-
nal agreements or sanctions, legal provisions, regulatory
specifications or official rulings by supplying the customer in
question with the public service;
– if PostFinance would suffer significant financial risks by
allowing the customer to benefit from its services;
– if PostFinance would incur undue expenditure by monitoring
the customer relationship in order to meet its obligations of
due care;
– if the customer refuses to cooperate to enable PostFinance to
meet its obligations of due care or if the customer knowingly
makes it harder or impossible for PostFinance to do so;
– if PostFinance becomes aware of dishonest, illegal or criminal
customer behaviour, for example phishing, undeclared assets
or unauthorized financial intermediation;
– if the customer deposits assets obtained through the
dishonest, illegal or criminal actions of third parties;
– if the customer uses force or serious threats against
PostFinance or its employees;
– if the customer fails to settle a negative balance despite
reminders being sent on multiple occasions."
https://www.postfinance.ch/content/d..._pf_gtc_en.pdf
Also, the PostFinance sent a letter dated 16 January 2013 called in German "Information zu den neuen Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen und zu den wichtigsten Teilnahmebedingungen der PostFinance AG" (Information on the new General Terms and Conditions and on the most important participation conditions of the PostFinance AG). Below is a relevant excerpt (translated):
"Legal and Regulatory Changes
With receipt of the bank license additional obligations of financial market law will be incurred by the PostFinance AG. These can supersede the basic service requirement for payment transactions: as the PostFinance AG we must be able to cancel problematic business relationships. The concrete cases are covered in the General Terms and Conditions. Moreover, the PostFinance AG must be able to react to international challenges in financial markets legislation (source tax, FATCA, etc.) ."
JC
You have the right to send a complaint to the IRS if being discriminated and they will take care of it. Feel dree to point this out to Post Finance
1. Postfinance accepts American nationals provided they live in CH.
2. Their system only holds one nationality per client, in my case "Dutch".
3. The Postfinance will contact me in case of any issues. Being a U.S. national residing in CH with a Postfinance account is no problem.
I do not know if there are forms to fill out for U.S. expats without dual nationality, or if the above 3 points will continue to apply in the future.
1. At your bank or PostFinance agreeing that you will adhere to all reporting and allow the institution to give account information to the US (FATCA), one time signature.
2. FBAR, allowing the US to obtain account information from your listed bank accounts, annually.
Whether single or dual nationality (or more). US person is a targeted individual. If that is discrimination, call it what you want. The Swiss banks call it denial of services in which they reserve the right to do.
JC
Dan
Not saying that the woman in the post office who did it knows all the ins and outs, but she did call for help in answering the questions when we did it. I don't know if they have on record that the kids are US citizens or not, but I have accounts for the kids there. And I am pretty sure that I am on them as well as the parent since the kids are under age.
They may or may not be interested in opening an account for you. I know they didn't want to know me or my blue passport when dealing with an account my husband had as he is German - so I have been left off of all the accounts (I am happy about that, actually!) but if they didn't have the option of taking someone with another nationality, maybe they would open an account, but I don't know for sure
Dan
JC