Hi everyone,

We are soon opening a Swiss foreign branch (Zweigniederlassung) of a Danish company. I will be living in Zurich and working from an office there. We're trying to set up a Swiss bank account for the branch, but received this reply from Credit Suisse when enquiring:

"Minimum credit balance: CHF 50'000.00. Credit Suisse expects its non-Swiss corporate clients to have a certain minimum balance for the duration of the relationship. If this minimum balance is not adhered to, Credit Suisse will levy an annual fee (in addition to the normal account management charges that apply)."

Is this a standard policy? When they say "non-Swiss" are they referring to people without a traceable bloodline from the master race, or just businesses not resident in Switzerland?

Thanks for your help,

Russell.

What I could reply on you question is that these requirements are normal Swiss policy. I am working as a financial advisor in one of the Swiss private banks, I know that everyone who is a non-citizen or the company is not registered as a domestic company faces this hefty minimum deposit requirement. There are a lot of other non-swiss banks, probably there is some where a Danish bank, could that be more useful? Or try some smaller banks, maybe are of any help to you, they really have a cut-throat competition

A Swiss AG company requires 100k Capital. So you can see the Banks' expectation of foreign companies.

For individuals, doubt that citizenship is the issue. The Banks are worried about non-residents, who may disappear leaving debts.

UBS has the same/similar requirements when I asked the same question last year at their Zug branch.

The best solution I have found in other countries is that you ask your bankers in the home country to open an account in the foreign country at the local branch or subsidiary of the bank. This tends only to be available for the very biggest banks as they are the ones most likely to have foreign branches/subsidiaries. e.g. for our Dutch company banked with ABN AMRO they opened us a US account at their local subsidiary in New York and a UK account at their London branch. I suspect you need to make a list of the largest Danish banks and check the Zurich directory/their web site to see if they have local branches/subsidiaries.

Another alternative I have used in some EU countries is to open a Post Office account for receiving payments. You may find that postfinance.ch can do something for you.

Hi Russell,

I've run these types of account for years with both UBS and Swissquote without ever have this problem...

However the company that held them was actually doing business in Switzerland and the cash flowing through the account was from these transactions. Perhaps that makes a difference....


Jim

solution 1: As someone answered in a previous post, check the swiss post web site

http://www.postfinance.ch/pf/content/en/seg/biz.html

they do not have the requirements of large swiss banks in terms of deposit.

and services offered are good with full online access .


solution2: if your company is a large established in your country and you can count on banking references, go definitely with a branch of that bank. they will be able to do this directly from your country.

helps as well if you need to transfer funds back to your country. they now the procedure and can do quick transfers while agreeing on a group fees.

as well while you are in switzerland, if you go to that branch you will be sure to have at least one employee who speaks your language and can understand the document in danish you present to the office teller...


dealing with local banks can be an issue when you are from a country with such an exotic language as danish...

less of a problem if you come from the UK.

can really be a time saver in some cases.