We are setting up an Sarl in Switzerland that will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of a US startup. After calling several banks (e.g., UBS, PostFinance), they do not want to open a bank account for the Sarl in Switzerland because of the US owner.

Does anyone have recent experience with this and can recommend a bank that still does business with Sarls owned by US companies?

By the way, this seems to be a recent problem.

Thanks a lot!

UBS, Postfinance and Credit Suisse are known to have "US Desks" to ensure compliance with US laws for their US Person customers. If you have not tried CS, that could be a next step.

You might also wish to contact the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce for guidance. A commercial attache at the US Embassy in Bern could possibly be of assistance.

Also, if you used a law firm or notary to establish the company, you might wish to check with them (but you've probably done that already).

One requirement will probably be that it is or is soon going to be an operating company with staff, rooms, customers and all. Accounts for mere sham companies for US persons are a non-starter.

Is your firm planning to hire locally or are they planning to transfer staff from the US? Because you also need to consider that any American who has signatory rights over any business accounts would have to report those on a FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) form.

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-...-Accounts-FBAR

Which is another reason why the banks don't like lending to American businesses.