Does anyone here happen to have opened a swiss bank account, and has good information to share? Does anyone have any info on companies that help open Swiss accounts via the internet, something like; http://www.micheloud.com/doc/e/index.html I've googled swiss banks, and then there is always wiki; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_bank but still hoping to gain more info from your responds. All info regarding the above topic is appreciated.
If you are after banking secrecy, then try Asian banks. they have refused to co-operate with EU and US authorities unlike the Swiss.
yes it is mainly about banking secrecy, but the other main factor is how reliable they are and do they also have numbered accounts? and also are they monitored by the countries taxing system?
bluud, If you want banking security as well as secrecy, choose a major Swiss or Luxembourg bank. Whilst they will cooperate with a criminal investigation, they are otherwise very secure and private. A numbered account has additional risks : what happens if you die and your heirs don't know the number (answer : they don't get the dough / assets) ? From this perspective, a corporate account is best as the company never dies (as long as the registration fees are paid). However, they all have rigourous KYC ("Know Your Client") policies and will want to know where your money comes from. If you're serious about this, get some brochures and go see them. If you've got some dough, they'll want you as a client and will be straightforwrd about whether or not they can give you / accept what you want. J.
You know who founded the Swiss Banking system? It was the Knights Templar. They were the first international bankers - and after they got massacred by the King of France on Friday the 13th they fled to Switzerland. I watched a documentary on this on the Histrory Channel back when the Da Vinci code came out. I want to watch it again but there have been no reruns and can't find it on google video.
In Austria you could, maybe still can, open an anonymous bank account, which are meant to be opened by Austrians only. Austrian lawyers open and re-sell them to other nationals. It is totally anonymous it can be given away as a present. I think max deposit was around $15k per account. Obviously one can have as many as he would want. One big benefit is that trey are totally anonymous. Is this your bank account Sir? Hm...Nope http://www.expatworld.org/article9.htm
If you want to park money somewhere outside of north america. Swiss banks have their pluses and minuses. From an audit persepctive...money coming out of a swiss bank into any north american bank will be flagged and audited immediately. To justify the benefits, you need to be dealing with lots of cash....say $5mm+ Swiss banks also tend to be quite expensive becuse many people use them to hide funds. They know this so they can charge more for the security. If you are US citizen, parking money in switzerland...you need to move it around a bit before puting it back in the US. Aisa and a few central american (caribean) banks can work for this. But be aware that the traditional offshore "havens" in the caribean also riase huge red flags. The best places to use are less obvious. and the structures to use are not self explanitory either.
Micheloud opens swiss accounts with Credit Suisse. What you get for their CHF 1199 fee is lower account minimums (half off) for free banking, and not having to travel to der Schweiz. Otherwise there is no advantage, you could just drop by at a branch, open a non-resident account with CHF 10,000 cash with your preferably non-US passport and that's it. There is some additional paperwork for accounts CHF 500,000+, which is piece of cake if your'e not a drug dealer or a corrupt bureaucrat. It's not that hard to open swiss accounts. Micheloud delivers it's a legitimate company, but it's too expensive and snobby IMHO. Until couple years ago they used to charge CHF 500 to open Postal accounts , but anybody could do it by mail for free with just a passport photocopy. The numbered account is with a very very low-profile Private bank. BTW you can still open a swiss Postal account by mail, but you need an address at France, Germany, Austria or Italy.