Swiss National Bank
Courtesy of Babel
Swiss National Bank
James Bond enters a Swiss bank in Spain and is frisked before he can meet with the banker. In the "Da Vinci Code," a triangular-shaped key activates a robotic arm that pulls a safety deposit box from the wall in a Swiss bank in Paris to ultimately reveal the secret to Christianity. The funny thing is neither of these scenes would actually happen in a real Swiss bank. There is no such robotic system and, while Swiss banks do have security, they don't search their clients before letting them access accounts. Most of us have formed ideas about what Swiss bank accounts are and how they work based on scenes like these that we've seen in the movies, read in books, or maybe even heard in the news. In other words, most of us have a distorted or mostly unrealistic view of what it really means to have the prestigious Swiss bank account. Let's dig deeper into Swiss Bank Accounts and see how they started, who can have an account and unlock the mystery.

Swiss bank accounts aren't just for millionaires, criminals or government officials trying to hide ill-gotten wealth, or celebrities protecting their assets from former spouses. They're available to anyone and lots of average people have Swiss bank accounts. People who live in countries with unstable governments and banks in particular often turn to Swiss banks because of their security and privacy.

But let's face it, most of us really just want to be able to say, "Oh, I'll wire the money from my Swiss bank account."

Private vs. Retail Banking

Walk into the wrong Swiss bank and you'll be quickly escorted out and pointed in the direction of the bank you "should" be entering. What just happened? You've just walked into a "private" bank rather than a "retail" bank. Private banking refers to services provided by banks to private individuals with exceptionally large assets to work with. It's called "private" because customers receive a much more personal level of service than in mass-market retail banking. This historically exclusive service has been reserved for those with liquid assets over $1 million, although accepted deposits as low as $50,000 are not unheard of these days. The services you will receive at a private bank focus on private counseling in aspects of wealth management including investments, tax concerns, and estate planning. Many private banks require a special invitation or referral by current customers.

Retail banking, on the other hand, is your traditional mass-market banking system offering checking, savings, personal loans, mortgages and other types of accounts for individuals. While many retail banks also offer investment services, they're not on the level of those offered by private banks. When banking with a retail bank, customers work with local branches of larger commercial banks.