BetterMakeWay

Hello people,

I was wondering if there are any Swiss people on this forum to help me with an issue. You all know about the economic crysis that hit US and affected more or less the whole world. In return some governments across Europe already started to act so to avoid or attenuate the impact on their banking system (and not only). For example UK has already a work in progress plan to guarantee the bank saving to a certain "confort" level. (source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oc.../banking.banks)

The Romanian government has a similar act in progress but with big doubts as to if it will be implemented or not. So what's this got to do with the topic title? Well i was thinking, to avoid financial disaster, if God forbids a bank here will go bankrupt, to move my savings to Switzerland in a safer place.

Now, since i don't have the time to speculate on money markets or to work with offshores, i never really experienced working with abroad banks. My general questions are:

1. Are the bank deposits in Switzerland guaranteed by the state 100%? If not...how much?

2. What are the best (safest) banks in Switzerland?

3. Do i need any specific paperwork or something like that if I, as a foreign person, need to open a bank account there?

So please share as much info as possible, especially regarding the bank situation (classification) there, because once i have that general info i can further contact those banks and find out more. May i add that i'm not looking for best returns out of those deposits instead i'm looking for safe banks.

All the best,
Andrei D.

BetterMakeWay

Oh come on! Nobody?!

melimel

im not swiss but i occasionally eat alpine lace (was gonna type alpine WHITE.. OMG TFF!) swiss cheese..lolol.. sorry i had to

BigMike

I don't think banks anywhere are safe these days.

I spread them around different regional banks -- at least if one goes down, it won't
be the end of all....

mrfva

I prefer Gouda myself, but Alpine Lace from time to time is good

@BetterMakeWay

1. There is no government deposit insurance in Switzerland, with the exception of the
   Swiss cantonal bank account. But your deposits are probably safer in a Swiss bank
   than in most other banks in the world. Here are reasons why, See
   http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/faq...insurance.html.
   It looks like they guarantee up to 30K of Swiss Francs.
2. Interesting article regarding UBS,
   http://www.economist.com/displaystor...ry_id=11662161
3. Here are some general information on opening a Swiss bank account,
   http://www.swissbanking.org/en/home/...eroeffnung.htm and
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_in_Switzerland

Hope this helps ...

BetterMakeWay

Yeees thank you guys for the help full comments. Regarding this topic i contacted today Credit Suisse in an attempt to find more info so they confirmed the fact that the government does not guarantee in any way any kind of save deposits. She told me that the economic crysis did not affect too much the banking sector in Switzerland and that's why some governments like the UK reacted to further draw away panic from the people or offer them some kind of measurement. Also she told me that there are some rumors to some 100% coverage if waters become too unsettled even in Switzerland.

@BigMike: Yeah that was also my no. 1 plan, except the fact that it's rather hard to bet on one bank or the other base only on rumors, assumptions, and annual reports.

Later edit: Can anyone explain me what is a Swiss cantonal account? http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/banking/a...nk-account.html

I can't really understand the term 'cantonal'. I don't understand who guarantees for that account. The bank (and in this case which bank)? The national bank? Is this just an instrument available in all big banks in Switzerland?

SoCalBimmer

I just put my money in my E60