A client with ten million dollars hears the same promise from both centres: safety, discretion, market access. They diverge in the detail, and they diverge by multiples. Singapore's banks post their entry thresholds on the website; Swiss banks almost universally do not. Swiss deposit protection covers balances in any currency, Singapore's covers Singapore dollars only. MAS has made onboarding speed a public target and fines banks tens of millions; FINMA has no power to fine at all. In Switzerland a retrocession belongs to the client by default; in Singapore it belongs to the bank, which must disclose its cap. Below are ten parameters with figures drawn from primary sources, and an explicit caveat wherever no primary source stands behind a figure.
The concept
Comparing brands gets you nowhere: the large groups sit in both centres, and the same logo in Zurich and Singapore means separate legal entities under separate regulators. What repays comparison is three layers, in each of which the jurisdiction sets a frame above whatever the individual bank is willing to offer:
- Access — entry threshold, onboarding time, appetite for a difficult profile
- Protection — bank secrecy and its limits, deposit insurance, the regulator's sanction, the dispute mechanism
- Economics — transaction taxes, custody and mandates, retrocessions, FX spread
The key parameters of both centres sit in one grid; each is taken separately below.
| Regulator | FINMA in Switzerland, MAS in Singapore |
|---|---|
| Entry threshold | DBS Private Bank US$5 million from 1 January 2026; Swiss houses publish no minimums |
| Onboarding time | Singapore — median about six weeks against a MAS target of a month; Switzerland publishes no benchmark |
| Deposit insurance | CHF 100,000 in any currency; S$100,000 in Singapore dollars only |
| Transaction tax | Switzerland — 0.075% and 0.15% borne by the client; Singapore — no turnover tax, 0.2% stamp duty on share transfers |
| Retrocessions | Switzerland — the client's under Art. 400 para. 1 CO; Singapore — the bank's, capped at 70–90% of the management fee |
| Regulator's fine | MAS — S$27.45 million on nine institutions, 4 July 2025; FINMA has no such power |
| Figures as at | DBS schedules from 1 September 2026, VP Bank from 1 July 2026; CRD VI applies from 11 January 2027 |
Entry threshold
Singapore publishes the numbers. DBS runs three tiers and names each one on its website: Treasures from S$350,000 in investible assets, Treasures Private Client from S$1.5 million, Private Bank from US$5 million. Its official Fee Schedule carries a separate notice: from 1 January 2026 the minimum AUM requirement for DBS Private Bank rises to USD 5 million and the annual Service Fee to USD 10,900 inclusive of GST; the fee may be waived at the bank's sole discretion where average AUM over the preceding six months exceeds the threshold.
Bank of Singapore names no threshold and builds one into its Schedule of fees and charges instead: an account service fee of USD 5,000 semi-annually applies to accounts whose average month-end AUM over the preceding six-month period falls below USD 5 million. The de facto threshold is the same, and the price of falling short is USD 10,000 a year.
The Swiss side is silent. The only bank in the sample publishing mandate minimums is VP Bank (Switzerland) Ltd, schedule valid from 1 July 2026: discretionary VP Vida Custom from CHF 2 million, Advanced from CHF 750,000, Essential from CHF 250,000; advisory VP Auda Custom from CHF 1 million, Advanced from CHF 250,000. The VP Sensa core package costs CHF 150 a month.
UBS, Julius Baer, Pictet, Lombard Odier and Vontobel publish no minimums anywhere official, and entry is agreed individually. The one documented reference point is Pictet's own description of its client base: net worth from CHF 5 million in wealth management and Investment Office mandates from CHF 100 million. Figures circulating in relocation and account-opening material, such as «Pictet from CHF 2 million», have no primary source behind them.
Onboarding: a month as the regulator's public target
Singapore has said the number out loud. MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun told the UBS Asian Investment Conference on 25 May 2026 that the aim is to bring the median time needed to open a private banking account to within a month, down from a current median of about six weeks, longer for more complex cases.
MAS issued a circular the same day directing financial institutions to establish a client's source of wealth in a risk-proportionate way — corroborating what is material or higher-risk rather than attempting to corroborate every single element of the file. The Private Banking Industry Group issued a set of Process Enhancement Tips alongside it. The circular's reference number is confirmed only by law-firm commentary, so it is not cited here.
Switzerland publishes no service-level target, neither from FINMA nor from the Bankers Association. Physical attendance is not legally required: FINMA Circular 2016/7 permits video and online identification, and a partial revision consulted on from 16 December 2025 to 27 February 2026 prepares recognition of the Swiss E-ID as a full identity document for AMLA-compliant digital onboarding.
The indirect price of a heavy file shows up in the Swiss tariff. On top of its CHF 150 monthly base, VP Bank charges CHF 150 a month for clients outside focus markets, CHF 100 a month for legal entities and CHF 300 a month for relationships requiring enhanced monitoring for regulatory reasons. The surcharges are monthly and they stack: all three together come to CHF 550 a month, CHF 6,600 a year on top of the CHF 1,800 base.
Bank secrecy: two constructions, one outcome
Swiss secrecy lives in criminal law. Art. 47 of the Banking Act carries imprisonment of up to three years for intentional disclosure and up to five years where the discloser obtained a financial benefit; negligent breach is punished by a fine of up to CHF 250,000, and the duty survives the end of the employment relationship.
The Singapore construction is a prohibition with a closed positive list. Section 47(1) of the Banking Act 1970: customer information must not, in any way, be disclosed except as expressly provided in the Act. The exceptions are exhausted by the Third Schedule, split in two. Part 1 covers recipients free to disclose onward (client consent, probate and letters of administration, bankruptcy and winding up, the bank's own litigation, police and authorised officers, Supreme Court orders under the Evidence Act 1893, a parent supervisory authority, MAS). Part 2 covers recipients barred from onward disclosure (bank officers, auditors, head office for internal audit and risk management, outsourcing providers, M&A counterparties, credit bureaux without deposit information).
The sanction under s.47(6): an individual faces a fine of up to S$125,000 or up to three years' imprisonment or both; a body corporate a fine of up to S$250,000.
The Swiss sanction is harsher on liberty, the Singapore one harsher on corporate money. Neither protects against the tax authority of the client's country of residence. In the 2025 exchange round the Swiss ESTV exchanged data with 110 states, sending information on roughly 3.8 million financial accounts and receiving information on 3.5 million; some 9,000 reporting financial institutions are registered, and Kenya and Thailand were added. No data was exchanged with Russia this year either. Singapore reports under CRS and publishes its list of Reportable Jurisdictions annually.
Deposit protection: currency decides
| Parameter | Switzerland (esisuisse) | Singapore (SDIC) |
|---|---|---|
| Limit | CHF 100,000 per client per bank | S$100,000 per depositor per Scheme member |
| Foreign currency | Covered, converted at the rate on the opening of bankruptcy | Not covered at all |
| Structured deposits | Not covered | Expressly excluded along with investment products |
| Securities | Not covered (they belong to the client) | Not covered (unit trusts, shares, other securities) |
| Foreign branches of the bank | Not covered | Scheme attaches to the Singapore Scheme member |
| Timing | 7 working days to transfer funds to the bankruptcy liquidator; the «7 days to the client» target starts 1 January 2028 | Target: most payments within 7 working days after MAS activates payout |
| System cap | Around CHF 7.9 billion, being 1.6% of all protected deposits | DI Fund under DIPOPSA 2011 |
For a private client holding cash in USD and EUR, Singapore cover is nil: «The DI Scheme does not cover foreign currency deposits, structured deposits and investment products» (SDIC, Scope of DI Coverage). The Swiss formula is the opposite: «Auch Einlagen in fremden staatlichen Währungen sind durch die Einlagensicherung gesichert.» (esisuisse, Fragen und Antworten). The second divergence is timing: the Swiss seven working days today describe the transfer from esisuisse to the liquidator, while the «seven days to the client» target only comes into force on 1 January 2028.
With a portfolio worth tens of such limits, ranking of claims matters more than the insurance itself. In Switzerland protected deposits rank in the second class of creditors, an ordinary claim against the bank in the third.
Transaction taxes
The Swiss Umsatzabgabe runs at 1.5‰ on domestic securities and 3.0‰ on foreign securities and falls on the Swiss securities dealer participating as a party or intermediary. The detail most often garbled: where the dealer acts as intermediary it owes half the duty for each contracting party — «je eine halbe Abgabe für jede Vertragspartei». The load actually borne by the client therefore appears in the VP Bank tariff line: Swiss turnover tax 0.075% to 0.15%. Saying «the Swiss client pays 0.3% on foreign securities» doubles the real figure.
Swiss banks also pass through other duties: British and Irish stamp duty of 0.50% to 1.00% on purchases, French, Italian and Spanish FTT of 0.10% to 0.40%, other turnover taxes of 0.0325% to 0.50%. Swiss-law investment funds attract Verrechnungssteuer of 35% on earnings.
Singapore levies no securities turnover tax. Stamp duty per IRAS attaches only to documents transferring shares: 0.2% of the purchase price or of the value of the shares transferred, minimum one Singapore dollar, with the value of private company shares taken from net asset value. The electronic entry CDP makes to transfer scripless shares is exempt under the Stamp Duties (Exempt Record) Rules 2018. Listed portfolio trading is therefore untaxed; the duty bites on transfers of private company shares.
The claim that «Singapore has no capital gains tax» has needed a caveat since 2024: Section 10L of the Income Tax Act 1947 taxes gains from the disposal of foreign assets received in Singapore where the structure lacks adequate economic substance. The provision has a boundary worth knowing: it reaches only entities within a «relevant group» — a group whose members are not all in one jurisdiction, or one of whose entities has a place of business in more than one. A standalone Singapore holding company sits outside it. A separate line item is GST at 9% on banking fees: Singapore tariffs are published inclusive of it, Swiss tariffs marked «exclusive of VAT».
Product shelf and market access
The Singapore shelf is itemised in the tariff. DBS Private Bank trades Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai A and Shenzhen A via Stock Connect, Shanghai B and Shenzhen B, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, the UK, the eurozone, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
Swiss access to Europe is meanwhile narrowing. CRD VI requires a third-country bank providing core banking services to EU clients to establish a branch in every member state where those activities occur and obtain a local licence. Member States had to adopt and publish the measures by 10 January 2026 and apply them from 11 January 2026; the third-country branch regime itself bites on 11 January 2027, and agreements concluded before 11 July 2026 run to expiry — that window has now closed. The carve-outs are narrow: reverse solicitation at the exclusive initiative of the client and without any inducement by the bank (read narrowly by supervisors and suited to one-off transactions), services qualifying as MiFID II services, and intragroup operations.
Switzerland retains first place on international assets. The Deloitte International Wealth Management Centre Ranking (fifth edition, 23 October 2024, 2023 data) puts Switzerland at US$2.2 trillion of international AUM, roughly 21% global share, with the United Kingdom second, some US$8 billion behind, against a global total of US$10.1 trillion. Switzerland's share fell from nearly 24% four years earlier. The same study's competitiveness ranking runs differently: 1 Switzerland, 2 Singapore, 3 the United States. No later edition had been published as at September 2026.
Appetite for a difficult profile
Approaches to sanctions exposure differ in kind. Switzerland applies a quantitative prohibition keyed to nationality and location: the ordinance of 4 March 2022 (SR 946.231.176.72) bars accepting deposits above CHF 100,000 from Russian nationals and from natural and legal persons in Russia, requires existing deposits above that figure to be reported to SECO, and prohibits selling them securities or providing crypto services.
The decisive exception sits in the same provision, Art. 20 para. 3: the prohibitions do not apply to nationals of Switzerland, an EEA member state or the United Kingdom, nor to anyone holding a temporary or permanent residence permit of Switzerland, an EEA state or the UK. A Russian passport plus a Swiss residence permit takes the holder out of the threshold altogether. The regime stays live: the WBF amended the annexes again during 2026, and notifying SECO of a freeze does not relieve a financial intermediary of further clarification under Art. 6 AMLA.
The Singapore regime works by designation. MAS Notice SNR-N01, issued under s.3(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022, imposes measures targeted at designated Russian banks, entities and activities, applying to all financial institutions in Singapore including digital payment token service providers. There is no nationality threshold. None of which means an account will open: the bank's compliance filter operates separately from the sanctions perimeter.
Appetite for crypto-derived wealth reads straight off the tariff. DBS Private Bank's official Monetary and Non-Monetary Benefits Schedule lists cryptocurrencies as an underlying for options, swaps and OTC accumulators sold to private clients, alongside interest rates, credit, FX, commodities, funds and equities. None of the Swiss schedules reviewed carries crypto derivatives on the private banking shelf. The Swiss layer here is supervisory: FINMA Guidance 01/2026 of 12 January 2026 sets out the risks of crypto-asset custody, requiring robust technical infrastructure, sufficient in-house expertise and control of counterparty risk where sub-custodians outside Switzerland are used.
Cost of service
| Item | Singapore | Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| Custody | DBS PB 0.20% p.a., min S$109 incl GST; Bank of Singapore up to 0.25% (0.2725% incl GST), min USD 50 per quarter | VP Bank 0.35% for clients in focus markets and 0.45% for others, min CHF 10 per position p.a. |
| Discretionary mandate | Bank of Singapore DPM and APM up to 2.0% (2.18% incl GST) p.a. | VP Vida Custom 1.00% up to CHF 5m, tapering to 0.55% above CHF 25m; Essential 0.60% flat |
| Advisory mandate | No separate public grid in the sample | VP Auda Custom 0.85% up to CHF 10m, 0.55% above CHF 25m; the brokerage model cuts the fee by 40% |
| FX spread | Published as a cap: DBS up to 3% of the prevailing rate, Bank of Singapore up to 1% of notional | No maximum spread published in any schedule reviewed |
| Tax in the price | GST 9% included in published fees | Schedules quoted exclusive of VAT |
Singapore tariffs also disclose instrument-level caps: Bank of Singapore's spread on OTC options and structured products runs up to 2% of notional at tenors to two years and up to 5% beyond two years, primary market bonds up to 1%, secondary up to 2%. Swiss schedules carry no equivalent ceilings. Exactly one conclusion follows: reading DBS's «up to 3%» against Swiss silence as a price comparison is unsound — the disclosure regimes differ, and actual spread levels cannot be derived from these documents.
Dates demand care. The DBS Fee Schedule and Benefits Schedule now stand in the edition revised from 1 September 2026; the USD 5 million threshold, the Service Fee, 0.20% custody and the disclosure caps carry over unchanged. The Bank of Singapore tariff is marked version BOS202603 with no explicit «valid from» date. The VP Bank schedule runs from 1 July 2026.
Retrocessions: whose commission is it
This is the largest economic divergence between the centres, and it barely features at the selection stage.
In Switzerland a retrocession belongs to the client by default, under Art. 400 para. 1 CO and the Federal Supreme Court line. BGE 137 III 393 (case 4A_266/2010, judgment of 29 August 2011) set the conditions for a valid express waiver of the principal's claim to payments flowing to the manager: the client must understand the calculation parameters and the expected order of magnitude, a general clause in the contract is insufficient, and the burden of proving disclosure lies on the manager. BGE 138 III 755 (4A_127/2012, judgment of 30 October 2012) went further and extended the duty to trailer commissions the bank receives on the products of its own group companies. The argument that an in-house fund makes the payment an internal group matter did not survive. The supervisory layer sits on top in FIDLEG and FINMA Circular 2025/2 on conduct rules.
In Singapore the retrocession belongs to the bank and the duty reduces to disclosure. MAS Notice FAA-N03 treats the financial adviser's remuneration as disclosable information, with practical guidance in FAA-PN01; both current versions took effect 8 October 2018. The caps are published, and they are large:
- DBS Private Bank: trailer fee up to 70% of the management fee from the fund house on investment funds and up to 90% on bespoke funds of funds; placement fee up to 3% of the subscription amount; primary bond rebates up to 1% of notional, up to 0.25% on SGD issues
- Bank of Singapore: trailer fee up to 2.5% p.a. (2.725% incl GST) of market value on mutual and hedge funds; on private market funds a placement fee up to 3%, trailer up to 1.5% p.a., servicing fee up to 1% p.a.; referral fees on structured transactions up to 90% of the fee received
For a client holding US$10 million in funds the gap between the two regimes runs to tens of thousands of dollars a year, accruing without a single line on the statement.
Regulator, sanction and disputes
The nature of the sanction differs radically.
Fining as a supervisory tool
FINMA has no power to fine. Its own June 2025 information sheet frames this as a reform proposal: a fining power «complements the existing instruments», «makes FINMA more effective», «achieves a signalling effect and deters», and the authority that grants and withdraws a licence should also be able to impose a fine.
Absent that power, the Swiss sanction looks like the Julius Baer case of 20 February 2020: FINMA found serious anti-money-laundering deficiencies between 2009 and early 2018, faulted nearly all of the seventy risk-selected business relationships and the overwhelming majority of more than 150 sampled transactions, barred the bank from large and complex corporate acquisitions until proper conditions were restored, and appointed an independent agent. No monetary penalty features anywhere in that package.
Movement has begun: on 12 August 2026 the Federal Council opened a consultation, running until 19 November 2026, on amendments to the Banking Act and FINMASA under which FINMA would impose a pecuniary administrative sanction on supervised institutions of up to 10% of average annual operating income over the last three financial years, plus a Zwangsgeld for delayed implementation of ordered measures; until Parliament decides, the power does not exist.
MAS fines, and does so publicly. On 4 July 2025 it imposed composition penalties totalling S$27.45 million on nine financial institutions arising from the S$3 billion money laundering case: Credit Suisse Singapore Branch S$5.8m, United Overseas Bank S$5.6m, UOB Kay Hian S$2.85m, UBS AG Singapore Branch S$3m, Citibank S$2.6m, Julius Baer Singapore Branch and Blue Ocean Invest S$2.4m each, Trident Trust Singapore S$1.8m, LGT Bank Singapore S$1m — plus prohibition orders of three to six years on individual executives.
Supervision of external managers
Two-tier supervision of external managers exists only in Switzerland: portfolio managers and trustees must be licensed by FINMA and are then subject to ongoing supervision by a supervisory organisation, itself licensed and supervised by FINMA; intragroup managers are exempt, and transitional provisions applied to those who began commercial activity before 1 January 2021. In Singapore MAS supervises fund management companies directly.
Disputes with the bank
Disputes resolve differently too. Singapore's FIDReC adjudicates consumer disputes with financial institutions up to S$150,000 per claim for claims filed on or after 1 July 2024 (previously S$100,000); filing is free, and an Early Resolution phase of 10 business days was introduced on 1 July 2024. FIDReC is not a government agency and has no power over financial institutions — it is a public company limited by guarantee. The Swiss Banking Ombudsman mediates with no claim limit and no binding force.
Where each centre is heading
Swiss private banking is growing in assets and shrinking in participants. KPMG's Clarity on Swiss Private Banks of 24 June 2026 records for 2025 a record CHF 3.5 trillion under management at private banks and net new money of around CHF 96 billion, up about a third year on year — alongside contraction from 85 banks at the start of 2025 to 80 by year-end and 79 by May 2026, a forecast of «well below 70 by 2030», and a median cost-income ratio rising from 75.6% to 78.2%.
Singapore's industry is growing in double digits. MAS's annual Singapore Asset Management Survey 2025 records industry AUM up 10% to S$6.7 trillion (US$5.2 trillion) as at end-2025, with net inflows up 29% on the year, 1,320 managers running money out of Singapore and 76% of funds sourced from abroad. Setting that figure against the CHF 3.5 trillion of Swiss private banks is still the wrong comparison: the perimeters differ — a whole asset management industry against a private banking sub-segment.
Whole-market Swiss AUM for 2025 is now counted: the Banking Barometer 2026 from the Swiss Bankers Association (August 2026) puts it at CHF 9,729.1 billion, up 4.8% on the year, of which 45.9% belongs to clients domiciled abroad, with cross-border private client assets of CHF 2,945.7 billion, up 7.6% on a currency-adjusted basis. Foreign-domiciled clients added CHF 241.7 billion over the year against CHF 203.4 billion for residents, and by mid-2026 AUM crossed CHF 10 trillion for the first time, at CHF 10,119.5 billion.
Popular, and it ends badly
| Practice | The appeal | How it ends |
|---|---|---|
| Holding USD and EUR cash at a Singapore bank counting on deposit insurance | The S$100,000 limit looks like the Swiss equivalent | SDIC expressly excludes foreign currency deposits, structured deposits and investment products. Cover on a foreign currency balance is zero |
| Assuming Switzerland returns the money within a week | «Seven working days» appears on the esisuisse site | Those seven days are the transfer from esisuisse to the bankruptcy liquidator. The «seven days to the client» target only starts on 1 January 2028 |
| Budgeting Swiss stamp duty at 0.3% | The figure circulates in popular guides | 1.5‰ and 3.0‰ are the full duty, with the dealer owing half for each party. The client bears 0.075% and 0.15%, exactly as the VP Bank schedule shows |
| An EU resident opening a Swiss booking for a long-term programme | Brand, multi-currency custody, lombard credit | CRD VI requires a branch and a local licence in each member state from 11 January 2027. Agreements before 11 July 2026 run to expiry; new ones fall under the requirement |
| Reading DBS's «up to 3%» against Bank of Singapore's «up to 1%» as real spreads | The numbers are published, so they must be comparable | These are disclosure maxima, not typical levels. Swiss silence reflects a different disclosure regime and says nothing about price |
| Signing a general retrocession waiver in a Swiss contract | The manager presents it as a formality | BGE 137 III 393: a waiver is valid where the client understands the calculation parameters and the order of magnitude. A general clause fails, and the manager bears the burden of proof |
| Building a Singapore structure on «there is no capital gains tax» | True enough for domestic transactions | Section 10L taxes gains on foreign assets received in Singapore where economic substance is inadequate |
| Relying on Swiss entry thresholds quoted by intermediaries | The numbers are specific and easy to find | UBS, Julius Baer, Pictet, Lombard Odier and Vontobel publish no minimums; entry is agreed individually. The documented reference points are Pictet's own: a wealth-management client base from CHF 5 million and Investment Office mandates from CHF 100 million |
| Comparing budgets at the face value of the tariffs | The headline rates look similar | Singapore fees are published with 9% GST inside, Swiss ones exclusive of VAT — plus VP Bank's monthly surcharges: non-focus market and enhanced monitoring together run to CHF 5,400 a year, all three to CHF 6,600 |
Singapore wins on transparency and speed: thresholds are printed (US$5 million at DBS Private Bank, de facto the same at Bank of Singapore), the onboarding median sits at about six weeks against a public target of a month, custody costs 0.20% against 0.35–0.45% in Switzerland, and the shelf covers Asian markets through Stock Connect and crypto derivatives.
Switzerland wins on protecting client money: deposit insurance covers any currency where Singapore's covers SGD alone; the retrocession belongs to the client under Art. 400 para. 1 CO and BGE 137 III 393 and 138 III 755, where a Singapore bank keeps it under caps of 70–90% of the management fee; and the client bears half the transaction duty at 0.075% and 0.15% rather than 0.15% and 0.3%.
Regulatory sanction mirrors this: MAS fined nine institutions S$27.45 million on 4 July 2025, while FINMA has no fining power yet — a draft sanction of up to 10% of annual operating income went to consultation on 12 August 2026. EU residents should price CRD VI separately: from 11 January 2027 core banking services out of Switzerland require a branch and a local licence in every member state.
Q/A
Which centre has the lower entry threshold in practice?
Singapore's is formalised and known in advance: US$5 million at DBS Private Bank and de facto the same at Bank of Singapore. Switzerland's is negotiated and, in most houses, unpublished; the only published grid in the sample is VP Bank's, where a discretionary mandate starts at CHF 250,000 in the basic version and CHF 2 million in the bespoke one. The Swiss door opens through a mandate at smaller sizes, the Singapore one through a service tier.
What does bank secrecy actually deliver in 2026?
Protection from private parties, competitors, the press and civil claimants. Both constructions carry a «where the law requires» exception, and automatic exchange runs through precisely that. The practical difference shows in one place: Switzerland transmitted no data to Russia in the 2025 round.
Where is it cheaper to hold a portfolio?
On custody, Singapore: 0.20% at DBS Private Bank against 0.35–0.45% at VP Bank. On mandates the comparison reverses: a Singapore cap of 2.0% against a Swiss grid starting at 1.00% and tapering to 0.55%. Retrocessions decide the total: in Switzerland what the manager receives from product providers is owed to the client, in Singapore the bank keeps it, with caps reaching 70–90% of the management fee.
How fast will an account open?
Singapore's median is about six weeks, with a publicly stated target of a month. Switzerland has no published benchmark from FINMA or the industry association, and physical attendance has not been legally required since 2016. Speed there turns on the bank's internal rules, and the tariff surcharges for non-focus markets and enhanced monitoring show what the bank thinks such a file is worth.
Russian passport: where are the odds better?
Switzerland applies a direct quantitative ban — deposits above CHF 100,000 from Russian nationals and persons located in Russia may not be accepted. But Art. 20 para. 3 of the ordinance lifts the ban for anyone holding Swiss, EEA or UK citizenship, or a residence permit in one of those jurisdictions; for them there is no threshold. Singapore has no quantitative threshold for anyone; its restrictions attach to named designated persons. The absence of a sanctions prohibition does not open an account: bank compliance is a separate filter with its own criteria.
Crypto in the source of wealth — where will it be accepted?
The Singapore shelf already digests it: DBS Private Bank explicitly lists cryptocurrencies among the underlyings of options and swaps for private clients. The Swiss perimeter is supervisory — FINMA Guidance 01/2026 sets custody requirements for crypto assets — while the sanctions layer prohibits crypto services to Russian persons.
What happens in a dispute with the bank?
Singapore has FIDReC: free filing, a ten-business-day Early Resolution phase, jurisdiction up to S$150,000 per claim for complaints filed on or after 1 July 2024. Switzerland has the Banking Ombudsman, mediating with no monetary limit and no binding decisions. For a large claim both offer little, and litigation under the law of the booking centre remains.
Does multi-booking solve the question?
Partly. Two centres give diversification across legal systems, sanctions perimeters and currency restrictions, none of which correlate with each other. The price is duplicated compliance, a separate threshold in each centre, and consolidated reporting assembled by hand or through an external manager.