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Review of FlowBank, New Swiss Bank

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dragodrago

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Jan 8, 2020
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#1
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Just a quick review of FlowBank SA, a new Swiss bank opened last year.

Similar to Swissquote, it mainly focuses on trading, but it also provide a multi-currency Swiss IBAN. Account opening has been pretty easy, just a passport scan and address proof, no video or call. Their mobile app is also pretty decent.

One point to note is that they seem to have problems with USD deposits, they require you to gain approval prior to any USD payments. They also do not have any cards available yet.

If anyone have any feedback and review, feel free to share.

FlowBank.com
 
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#9
dragodrago said:
Similar to Swissquote, it mainly focuses on trading, but it also provide a multi-currency Swiss IBAN. Account opening has been pretty easy, just a passport scan and address proof, no video or call. Their mobile app is also pretty decent.
Click to expand...

Video verification is required for UAE residents at least...

video-verification.webp
 
#11
Mr Magoo said:
for now Flowbank only offers a trading platform, banking services are pending.
Click to expand...
They already gave you a Swiss IBAN and you can do bank transfers through their online banking. There isn’t a mobile banking app yet though, only trading.

BlueMist said:
Video verification is required for UAE residents at least...

View attachment 2155
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing, I guess they have different onboarding procedures for different countries.
 
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#14
That's not bad, really not bad, they will be floated with new customers from all over the world that want a Swiss bank account.
 
#15
@Martin Everson what are your thoughts? I thought you will already be all over this as an addition to the 100+ bank accounts ;)
Plus their custody fee is only 0.10% and they offer free shareholder registration. Not too bad. The only concern is that it's brand new ..
 
#16
0.10% custody is high for a newcomer bank. Also trading fees of foreign stocks trigger Swiss stamp duty of 0.15%. So buying ETF on e.g. XETRA will cost 0.3% total. SwissQuote Lux trading fees are 0.1% and custody fees max EUR 15 per month. Even SQ CH is cheaper as the custody is capped at CHF 50 per quarter.

Keeping €1M invested at FlowBank will attract €1000 annual fees vs max €180 / CHF 200 at SQ.
 
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#17
dragodrago said:
Just a quick review of FlowBank SA, a new Swiss bank opened last year.

Similar to Swissquote, it mainly focuses on trading, but it also provide a multi-currency Swiss IBAN. Account opening has been pretty easy, just a passport scan and address proof, no video or call. Their mobile app is also pretty decent.
Click to expand...
You're resident in Switzerland that you didn't had video call? Or they don't have it for whole EEA?
 
#18
BlueMist said:
0.10% custody is high for a newcomer bank. Also trading fees of foreign stocks trigger Swiss stamp duty of 0.15%. So buying ETF on e.g. XETRA will cost 0.3% total. SwissQuote Lux trading fees are 0.1% and custody fees max EUR 15 per month. Even SQ CH is cheaper as the custody is capped at CHF 50 per quarter.

Keeping €1M invested at FlowBank will attract €1000 annual fees vs max €180 / CHF 200 at SQ.
Click to expand...
Good points. But Saxo charges 0.20% custody fee (can get lower if you keep more funds) and min 5 EUR / position.
SwissQuote can indeed be cheaper but it depends on the amounts, you need to keep at least 200K at SQ CH for the custody fees to be 0.1%.

Stamp fee is charged by all CH brokers but you can buy on a cheaper broker (IB), transfer the stocks to Flow and they reimburse up to 750 CHF transfer fees.
 
#20
maxmmm said:
Good points. But Saxo charges 0.20% custody fee (can get lower if you keep more funds) and min 5 EUR / position.
SwissQuote can indeed be cheaper but it depends on the amounts, you need to keep at least 200K at SQ CH for the custody fees to be 0.1%.

Stamp fee is charged by all CH brokers but you can buy on a cheaper broker (IB), transfer the stocks to Flow and they reimburse up to 750 CHF transfer fees.
Click to expand...
I am not a fan of Saxobank. They are constantly changing something. Also what you see for your country of residence is different from what I see for another country. The custodian fees can vary a LOT depending on the country. They don't have standard pricing for everyone like SQ, so to me they are not transparent. They have also increased their VIP tier requirement from $1M to $1.25M.

Yes with SQ CH / LU you need to have at least €200k for the custody fees to be 0.1% but with SQ LU there is another way looking at it. If you invest e.g. once a month, then essentially there are no maintenance fees at all, because the min. trading fee is almost equivalent to monthly maintenance fee.

However if we are talking about bigger amounts €1M+, then with SQ you are paying still the same vs % at Saxo or FlowBank.
 
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