A swiss friend of mine, living in the states, has been told she can not get e-banking for her Raiffeisen account.

I am very surprised, but would that be due to her us residency?

Did she consider asking Raiffeisen about it?

well, she is so scared the bank closes her account that she doesn't dare making noise about it. That is why I am posting this issue here.

Another VERY strang thing is that her adviser REFUSES to send her her statements, eventhough she has been asking for them for years now.

AND apparently the bank is applying a fee of 250 CHF for "holding" her post.

Doesn't make sense to me at all!

sounds like you don't have all the details.

If she does want her statements, why would the bank not send them to her?
Is this LEGAL at all???? With or without all the informations.
She WANTS her statements sent to her, basta.

The question is: is her place of residence (US) a problem for sending the statements???

Is the place if residency a problem to get access to your accounts through e-banking?

She doesn't speak German, so she didn't undertstand what "Gebuehr Banklagernd" means. That's the 250 CHF fee.

I told her she needs to talk to someone else, but the bank refused to have anyone else talk to her, except her adviser.

I think this really doesn't smell good. And she needs to clarify the situation.
But again, not being in Stwitzerland makes it difficult.

Simply put, they are protecting themselves and her from the US. It's perfectly legal.

Why does she have an RB account? It's not exactly known as an enclave for high net worth individuals.

She has this account for years and she is NOT a wealthy person.

This doesn't make any sense. In order to fill the tax requirement (TD F 90-22.1 and FBAR forms), you NEED your statements.

If nothing else works, I am thinking of asking her to write a paper authorizing me (or someone else) to get her statements and send them to her.

I also told her to get in touch with other swiss bank (UBS or CS) in the states to see if they would open an account in CH Francs for her.

Why does she not communicate directly with her client advisor?
Failing that, why not relocate the funds back to the US and make life easier?

I'm not saying I don't believe you but I think there is more to the story than what's above.

By the way if she has an insistence on the Swiss Franc, why not store them in a safe or safety deposit in the US? The fees on her account are going to be more than that costs....

A possible way to access an e-banking account from the US is through a VPN with a server in CH. Many of us in CH do just the opposite so that we can watch films on US (or UK, etc.) servers from CH, which would otherwise be blocked to those outside of the US (or UK, etc.). A VPN connection costs around CHF 10-15 per month. Search on "Swiss VPN" or similar to locate VPN providers.

She has been asking for her statements for years.
The adviser tells her he is sending them ... and she never received them. What she received was a balance summary - which is not a complete statement.

ok, I am not a specialist, and you are correct, I don't know the details.
Maybe she wants to keep a swiss account for the case she wants to move back, maybe she needs this account for whatever reason. I don't know.

Thank you for your input. I will transmit your ideas and better, I will tell her to join the the forum, so that she can explain her situation directly.

Thank you for your answer. Good to know!

Well .... if the bank is not giving her an e-banking access, even a VPN wouldn't help her.

Close the account and go somewhere else.
Postfinance would probably welcome her. Many others not.

A Swiss account is sucking the money out of her account, I bet she's getting less interest than it's costing her.

She could also have the statements delivered to her family. That's what I'd do if I was moving abroad and wanting to keep statements coming in.

It's not as if it keeps a credit score up or anything.

yes, that makes sense.

She doesn't have any family left in Switzerland actually, but having the statements sent to a friend would make sense.

Thank you for your comments "Sean Connery"!

Both UBS and post finance allow unrestricted access to e-banking from outside CH.

Statements are not required for the US return. According to my accountant in NY only the highest daily balance is needed --which is different to the year end reporting that you typically receive from Swiss banks.

Nein, Postfinance is closing all US resident accounts, irrespective of nationality as even my husband's account was closed once he updated his address.

Maybe suggest to your friend that she change her address to yours so that they arrive in the post at your home and you can forward them to her and so that they don't close the account. The IRS has really bunged up banking for a lot of folks.

We don't get any paper statements from Raiffeisen...my guess is they charge for that. But I can do e-banking, and I do get e-statements. I asked them if I could access my account during our recent trip abroad and they said I would be able to, but in the end I didn't need to, so not sure if that was accurate..

That is great news! Thank you for the information!!!

Yes, statements per se are not required, but you need to look at them to figure out what was the highest value on the account during the year, which is different from getting the list of monthly balance.

OMG!!! Another one ...!!!
How long until Postfinance closes accounts of US citizen leaving in Switzerland?!!!

Maybe not mine, but this may be her best option.