Interactive brokers Switzerland review

I live in the Eurozone, and like to have my money outside of the reach of the Eurozone. That's why I have my money in Switzerland. At present I use Credit Suisse, but their fees are exhorbitant. I found CIM bank which uses Interactive Brokers as one of their platforms, I understand. I wonder why it does not feature in moneyland.ch's comparison?

I undertstand that Interactive brokers use Citi Bank in London. Would that be an alternative to a Swiss bank, seeing as though Brexit is about to come about?

zahans

Good day

In fact, the big Swiss banks are very expensive when it comes to trading for private individuals. There are much cheaper trading platforms from Swiss banks. You will find all relevant banks listed in the trading comparison on moneyland.ch.

Important: moneyland.ch is a Swiss comparison service. In the trading comparison tool on moneyland.ch only providers with a full Swiss banking license are listed. Interactive Brokers is therefore not listed.

In general: No objections to Interactive Brokers and several other international trading providers. Often these are even significantly cheaper than the cheapest Swiss banks. However, we only recommend international brokers to people who trade often and are already well versed in trading. 

Reason: Unfortunately there are many dubious international providers in the field of trading (Interactive Brokers is not one of them). In addition, the price differences between "cheapest" Swiss providers and international providers are not huge for those who trade infrequently.

However, alternative international platforms such as Interactive Brokers can be worthwhile for frequent traders.

Best regards from the Moneyguru

Further information:
Swiss trading comparison tool

Good day MoneylandGuru,

Thank you for your answer.

There was a time where I had the impression that the use of Swiss banks had an amount of security from the reach of the Eurozone authorities. I believed that it was good to not have one's wealth in the reach of fiscal and other authorities at home (IMF consideration of a 1-off capital levy, for example).

Now that Brexit is imminent, would you personally see a problem with holding assets at Citibank in London.

I would be interested in your opinion, and that of other people om this forum.

Kind regards,

zahans

Dividing wealth between different legal jurisdictions is generally an important part of diversification. Holding all your wealth within a single legal system exposes you to a lot of risk, whether that jurisdiction is the EU or a different government.

Post Brexit, the UK should become an independent jurisdiction again, making it an option for diversification.

I understand that IB has low fees, so that's obviously an important consideration. But maybe consider not keeping all your eggs in one legal basket. I also recommend you look at the exact details of IB's depositor protection.

So far, the Swiss economy and the franc have been relatively stable, so those are arguments for holding some assets in Switzerland. But in terms of protection from foreign governments, Switzerland is not quite what it used to be. Bear in mind that since the introduction of automatic information exchange with the EU, details about wealth stored in Switzerland are known to your country's government. But it certainly would be more difficult for an EU government to seize money Cyprus style from a Swiss account without a long process. I assume the same will apply to UK accounts.

As with all other aspects of investment, diversification is absolutely key.