Bank account opening and managing in Switzerland and Europe can pose serious challenges to entrepreneurs, businessmen, and startups, often hampering their growth, and at times threatening a company’s very existence.

A Decade of Compliance

Over the last 10 years we call the "Decade of Compliance" account opening has cardinally changed – from being a mere formality to becoming a lengthy and knowledge-intensive process.

Mistakes committed during account opening reflect on both the client and the bank and can put at risk further collaboration.

While the Europe Union granted to all European citizens the right to a basic payment account (here) and the promotion of small and mid-sized businesses is on the agenda of nearly every political party, the ground reality is quite different, as private banks close their doors but to the chosen few and corporate banking shows little appetite for low-margin transactions accounts.

Instead, clients are viewed as outright threats, calling for robust lines of defence via regular transactions monitoring, multi-level sanctions screenings and in-depth plausibility checks.

As a result, account opening and managing can pose serious challenges to an entrepreneur, often hampering growth, and at times threatening a company’s very existence.

Astrantia is an independent asset manager reuniting legal, compliance and audit experts from global banks and big-4 consultancies. We specialize in complex client on-boarding due diligence and have the expertise to deliver and run investment and commercial accounts in Switzerland and Europe.

The EU has also asked banks to improve the transparency and comparability of fee information and help people switch banks. We hope that our approach makes a step in the right direction.