There seems to be a sense of injustice and a feeling of confusion amongst many U.S. expats living in Switzerland regarding the current difficulty in having a Swiss bank account. To get some clarity I had a meeting with Tanja Marzluf, Team Leader for Private Customers at UBS Luzern & Zug, who was able to explain the situation to me and de-dramatize the whole thing.
Let’s begin by getting some facts straight it is completely legal and feasible for U.S. citizens to open and have regular bank accounts in Switzerland if they can provide these three documents: passport, proof of residency in Switzerland and proof of employment (in the case of families, one member must be employed). With these three documents you can have a normal bank account, a prepaid credit card and a maestro card to make cash withdrawals.
As soon as the person has a B permit they can also apply for a credit card. Americans can have shares and stocks but cannot have investment funds anymore. Bear in mind that these are not decisions made by the Swiss Government alone but also by the US government.
What every American who opens a bank account must do is sign the FACTA documents: i.e. an IRS form and a W9 form.
The FACTA agreement was signed in February 2013 and banks like UBS and others have been implementing the requirements since the beginning and sometimes even before, a lot of the smaller banks like the Raiffeisen are playing catch-up.
Things get a bit more complicated and a lot more uncomfortable for U.S. citizens who have had bank accounts for a longer period of time and who now have to fill these forms out. This does mean declaring all revenue to the IRS and if a client refuses to do so then the bank has to close the account. A lot of smaller banks are only getting around to implementing these measures now and seem to be eager for their U.S. clients to leave their banks rather than have to deal with all the paper work.
So it is good to know that UBS is happy to take on U.S. citizens as customers provided they meet the above mentioned criteria. Tanja Marzluf and her team Lucas Chang and Daniel Prisc are happy to answer questions you may have about opening a bank account in Luzern or Zug.
