Opening a Bank Account

A client may contact you because s/he has problems with opening a bank account. Access to bank accounts are often restricted for people with an N or F permit – banks often require official identification documents like a passport or an ID, which asylum seekers, if they ever had such documents, have to submit to SEM once the apply for asylum (and don’t get them back, even with an F). The N or F permits are mostly not accepted, although FINMA declared to AsyLex that these permits are sufficient in order to open an account. Some banks do not allow people with an N or F permit to open a bank account altogether. For refugees with a negative decision and Sans-Papiers it is, unfortunately, basically impossible to open an account. Furthermore, refugees and asylum seekers often do not know much about financial services and may ask you to help them with procedures and financial transactions.

If a client asks you to help with opening a bank account, first ask them in which Canton they live and inform them about the banks that currently accept the N or F permit as sufficient doc- uments, as well as their monthly charges:

• PostFinance (Swiss-wide), 5.-/month

• Aargauische Kantonalbank (Canton Aargau), 4.-/month

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (Canton Vaud), 3.50.-/month

• Graubündner Kantonalbank (Canton Graubünden), ca. 4.-/month

Furthermore, Valiant (Swiss-wide) accepts permit F, but not permit N and charges 5.- per month. In a next step, you can inform the client about the procedure of opening an account.

It is easiest to open the account at the bank in person. You may accompany a client and help him/her fill out the necessary information. With all the above-mentioned banks it is also possi- ble to fill out the information to open an account online – in this case the client usually still needs to go to the bank in person with the permit or send copies of all the required documents. If an employee for some reason does not want to accept the N or F permit, point out that this permit is a sufficient means of identification, as stated by FINMA.

If required, you may give the client an introduction course in e-banking (financial transactions, checking their balance, direct debiting/Lastschriftverfahren etc.) and inform them about FinTech- Apps such as Arcadia, Revolut, Neon, TransferWise etc., with which financial transactions abroad are much cheaper.