Crypto-friendly Liechtenstein/Swiss banks

[WorldCitizen99]

If I were to travel to Liechtenstein or Switzerland, how hard would it be for me to find a bank that will set up a business account
that will accept EUR transfers from an institutional Kraken.com account (crypto-->USDT-->Euros)?
What would their minimum deposit be? I can't deposit more than 100,000 EUR for the time-being but in a year I should be able to deposit at least 500K-1M

I have a company set up in Europe. For the moment I will just be trading cryptos through it.

I have a local provider who is offering to set up the accounts for me (for a not insignificant fee) but I have some free time and I'd be willing to do it myself
and visit 1 or both of those countries and make it into a nice little holiday

 

[bigdaddyleon]

I think you have a relatively good chance with Bank Frick, especially because they process the payments for Kraken.

If your citizenship/residency are correct, this should not be a problem.

They didn't want me with Thai residency, it would be too much risk for them (but UAE will be released again in the next few months)

 

[WorldCitizen99]

I think you have a relatively good chance with Bank Frick, especially because they process the payments for Kraken.

If your citizenship/residency are correct, this should not be a problem.

They didn't want me with Thai residency, it would be too much risk for them (but UAE will be released again in the next few months)

I wrote to Frick before - they needed 500K - can be in cash or crypto - not crazy about them custodying my crypto although Im curious what they charge to do so

 

[Sols]

You can try Klarpay, Fiat24, Sygnum, and Amina.

Depending on your overall economic profile, ties to DACH region, and financial ambitions, you can try Liechtenstein Landesbank (LLB), MBaer, Kaleido, Valiant, PostFinance, and some of the cantonal banks. But I don't think your chances of success are very high with those banks, especially for a business account. 100,000 isn't a lot to these banks if you're a non-resident.

Or just wait a year until you have closer to a million at which point Bank Frick might be an option.

 

[WorldCitizen99]

You can try Klarpay, Fiat24, Sygnum, and Amina.

Depending on your overall economic profile, ties to DACH region, and financial ambitions, you can try Liechtenstein Landesbank (LLB), MBaer, Kaleido, Valiant, PostFinance, and some of the cantonal banks. But I don't think your chances of success are very high with those banks, especially for a business account. 100,000 isn't a lot to these banks if you're a non-resident.

Or just wait a year until you have closer to a million at which point Bank Frick might be an option.

Thx for that list SOLS!
I could go on a banking vacation! (Something only offshore nerds like me get excited about!)

 

[bigdaddyleon]

I wrote to Frick before - they needed 500K - can be in cash or crypto - not crazy about them custodying my crypto although Im curious what they charge to do so

I found this price list, you might have to translate it.
https://www.bankfrick.li/sites/default/files/documents/LI BA 2517 DE V1.00.BFST_.01.68_de.pdf
500k sounds relatively much, I had offered to deposit 50,000 and increase it to 100-150 over the rest of the year.

Was only turned down (according to the employee) because of my residency, if I lived in Europe I could have started straight away.

My consultant recently announced that openings through a contact of him are possible with a deposit of just 200k (about 2-3 weeks ago)

so it seems to be more at the employee's discretion whether and which customers are allowed to open an account here.

 

[northwest]

I found this price list, you might have to translate it.
https://www.bankfrick.li/sites/default/files/documents/LI BA 2517 DE V1.00.BFST_.01.68_de.pdf
500k sounds relatively much, I had offered to deposit 50,000 and increase it to 100-150 over the rest of the year.

Was only turned down (according to the employee) because of my residency, if I lived in Europe I could have started straight away.

My consultant recently announced that openings through a contact of him are possible with a deposit of just 200k (about 2-3 weeks ago)

so it seems to be more at the employee's discretion whether and which customers are allowed to open an account here.

can you share your consultant?

 

[bigdaddyleon]

can you share your consultant?

sure, drop a pm

 

[northwest]

sure, drop a pm

dont have this option here. you can drop the name public here. great share for the community here.
you arent the consultant so its not even advertising for yourself. thanks.

 

[jafo]

If I were to travel to Liechtenstein or Switzerland, how hard would it be for me to find a bank that will set up a business account
that will accept EUR transfers from an institutional Kraken.com account (crypto-->USDT-->Euros)?
What would their minimum deposit be? I can't deposit more than 100,000 EUR for the time-being but in a year I should be able to deposit at least 500K-1M

I have a company set up in Europe. For the moment I will just be trading cryptos through it.

I have a local provider who is offering to set up the accounts for me (for a not insignificant fee) but I have some free time and I'd be willing to do it myself
and visit 1 or both of those countries and make it into a nice little holiday

Does it have to be in the EU?
Meaning, is crypto->USDT->U$ dollar a deal breaker?

 

[WorldCitizen99]

Does it have to be in the EU?
Meaning, is crypto->USDT->U$ dollar a deal breaker?

Given the difficulty of finding adequate arrangements, if you have a good setup with USD, I'm all ears!
I've been avoiding opening USD accounts in Europe bc of FATCA.
Should I not worry and just open a USD acct?

 

[jafo]

FATCA.

Correct me if I am wrong: Isn't this limited to the EU and other vassal states to give info about American citizens (and residents - this is hard AF, though) to the US government (IRS)?

 

[Tarzanboy1]

If I were to travel to Liechtenstein or Switzerland, how hard would it be for me to find a bank that will set up a business account
that will accept EUR transfers from an institutional Kraken.com account (crypto-->USDT-->Euros)?
What would their minimum deposit be? I can't deposit more than 100,000 EUR for the time-being but in a year I should be able to deposit at least 500K-1M

I have a company set up in Europe. For the moment I will just be trading cryptos through it.

I have a local provider who is offering to set up the accounts for me (for a not insignificant fee) but I have some free time and I'd be willing to do it myself
and visit 1 or both of those countries and make it into a nice little holiday

I dont like banks in Liechtenstein because they cannot respect the internal bank secrecy. I prefer Swiss bank but NOT in Tessin.

 

[jafo]

Tessin.

Why not Ticino? Anything we should know about?

 

[WorldCitizen99]

Correct me if I am wrong: Isn't this limited to the EU and other vassal states to give info about American citizens (and residents - this is hard AF, though) to the US government (IRS)?

Yes you're right

Correct me if I am wrong: Isn't this limited to the EU and other vassal states to give info about American citizens (and residents - this is hard AF, though) to the US government (IRS)?

Yes you are right - I am all mixed up!
Maybe I need to take a break from offshore research....
(There was a time where I was wondering if the US would share info with Canada if one opened a USD acct in a country without CRS but that had FATCA but this isn't relevant to me now)
So as a non-US person, I shouldn't care too much about opening USD accounts?

 

[netqqw]

Does it have to be in the EU?
Meaning, is crypto->USDT->U$ dollar a deal breaker?

Is this something you can share here?

 

[JackAlabama]

If I were to travel to Liechtenstein or Switzerland, how hard would it be for me to find a bank that will set up a business account
that will accept EUR transfers from an institutional Kraken.com account (crypto-->USDT-->Euros)?
What would their minimum deposit be? I can't deposit more than 100,000 EUR for the time-being but in a year I should be able to deposit at least 500K-1M

I have a company set up in Europe. For the moment I will just be trading cryptos through it.

I have a local provider who is offering to set up the accounts for me (for a not insignificant fee) but I have some free time and I'd be willing to do it myself
and visit 1 or both of those countries and make it into a nice little holiday

if you can 10x your 100k so surely, make it to 10M and go then. Its easy.

I dont like banks in Liechtenstein because they cannot respect the internal bank secrecy. I prefer Swiss bank but NOT in Tessin.

spoiler alert: its gonna be the very same

Why not Ticino? Anything we should know about?

id say because bored bank monkeys playing google bingo with his name

 

[Forester]

If I were to travel to Liechtenstein or Switzerland, how hard would it be for me to find a bank that will set up a business account


I have a company set up in Europe. For the moment I will just be trading cryptos through it.

If you want to set-up a business account for this company (or eventually for yourself), as I guess; do not overlook that crypto trading needs a licence or a registration in many cases, to be fully compliant with regulations – and any LI/CH bank will be really curious about this.

I have a local provider who is offering to set up the accounts for me (for a not insignificant fee) but I have some free time and I'd be willing to do it myself
and visit 1 or both of those countries and make it into a nice little holiday

Well, I agree that travelling to LI/CH can represent a nice holiday, nevertheless be advised that trying to open an account with LI/CH bank without an introducer is much more difficult and can turn your holiday into a really hard time with possibly no success...

I think you have a relatively good chance with Bank Frick, especially because they process the payments for Kraken.

If your citizenship/residency are correct, this should not be a problem.

They didn't want me with Thai residency, it would be too much risk for them (but UAE will be released again in the next few months)

Well, I am afraid that 100k is really not enough for them. After a year, with this 500k-1M it would be other story; and I would check also e.g. Cite Gestion in such a case.

My consultant recently announced that openings through a contact of him are possible with a deposit of just 200k (about 2-3 weeks ago)

Pretty possible. This is a difference between going directly or via introducer

so it seems to be more at the employee's discretion whether and which customers are allowed to open an account here.

Roughly said, yes – but we are talking about employees in compliance and/or asset managers, not about front line clerks you are usually talking to (especially when you are going directly).

Correct me if I am wrong: Isn't this limited to the EU and other vassal states to give info about American citizens (and residents - this is hard AF, though) to the US government (IRS)?

Unfortunately, you are wrong – FATCA implementation is widespread. Even when the particular country did not sign, many banks in such a country respect FATCA “voluntarily”, as they do not want to lose access to USD operations (and this access in on the sole discretion of the friendly US administration )

I dont like banks in Liechtenstein because they cannot respect the internal bank secrecy. I prefer Swiss bank but NOT in Tessin.

??? Could you please elaborate more on this, @Tarzanboy1? I would really like to know, what do you mean – what's the background of both your statements...

(There was a time where I was wondering if the US would share info with Canada if one opened a USD acct in a country without CRS but that had FATCA but this isn't relevant to me now)
So as a non-US person, I shouldn't care too much about opening USD accounts?

Yes, if you are not US citizen (or resident), FATCA does not concern you. (To be exact, in theory it concerns you if you open an account in the U.S.A. – then US institutions should report you to your tax residence country. But as far as I know, it's not happening, FATCA is currently the one-way process.)

 

[WorldCitizen99]

If you want to set-up a business account for this company (or eventually for yourself), as I guess; do not overlook that crypto trading needs a licence or a registration in many cases, to be fully compliant with regulations – and any LI/CH bank will be really curious about this.

Well, I agree that travelling to LI/CH can represent a nice holiday, nevertheless be advised that trying to open an account with LI/CH bank without an introducer is much more difficult and can turn your holiday into a really hard time with possibly no success...

Well, I am afraid that 100k is really not enough for them. After a year, with this 500k-1M it would be other story; and I would check also e.g. Cite Gestion in such a case.

Pretty possible. This is a difference between going directly or via introducer

Roughly said, yes – but we are talking about employees in compliance and/or asset managers, not about front line clerks you are usually talking to (especially when you are going directly).

Unfortunately, you are wrong – FATCA implementation is widespread. Even when the particular country did not sign, many banks in such a country respect FATCA “voluntarily”, as they do not want to lose access to USD operations (and this access in on the sole discretion of the friendly US administration )

??? Could you please elaborate more on this, @Tarzanboy1? I would really like to know, what do you mean – what's the background of both your statements...


Yes, if you are not US citizen (or resident), FATCA does not concern you. (To be exact, in theory it concerns you if you open an account in the U.S.A. – then US institutions should report you to your tax residence country. But as far as I know, it's not happening, FATCA is currently the one-way process.)

Best comment of this thread Forester! Thank you for all those CLEAR answers. Cheers amigo

 

[jafo]

a country respect FATCA “voluntarily”

So,

vassal states

then?

Or will the term "subservient state" be more appropriate in this context?

I'm always willing to learn "le mot juste"