A bank almost never invoices currency exchange: it builds it into the rate. Here is where that cost sits, how to measure it on your own statement, what it represents on a cross-border salary — and where a bank remains the right choice.
9 minute read | Updated 28 August 2026
This comparison covers one single act: converting Swiss francs into euros (or the reverse) and transferring the funds to an account abroad. It does not compare two institutions of the same nature.
Method and date of collection. ibani's terms come from the public pricing schedule, collected in August 2026. Bank exchange rate margins, by contrast, are not published: they are built into the rate applied and appear on no fee schedule. We therefore give a range observed on the retail CHF/EUR market (1.5% to 2.5%) and, above all, the method to measure your own bank's margin rather than take our word for it. This page is reviewed every quarter.
Comparison on the CHF/EUR conversion and transfer operation. ibani terms collected in August 2026; bank terms expressed as observed ranges, since no public schedule exists for exchange margins.
Sources: ibani public pricing schedule (collected August 2026); margin and fee ranges observed on the retail CHF/EUR market. Bank terms vary from one institution and one client profile to another: measure your own with the method in section 3.
This is the point that explains everything else: a bank does not sell currency exchange as an invoiced service, it sells it as a price. You will not find an "exchange commission" line on your statement — you see an amount in euros, and that is all. The cost is already inside it.
There is a reference rate, called the interbank rate, published daily by official institutions — the European Central Bank for EUR/CHF, the Swiss National Bank for its own series. No retail bank gives you that rate: it applies a different one, degraded by anything from a few tenths of a percent to several percent. That gap is its revenue. On the retail CHF/EUR market it usually sits between 1.5% and 2.5%, and frequently climbs above 3% on small amounts and over-the-counter transactions.
Fees for transfers abroad (often 5 to 30 CHF per operation), foreign currency account maintenance fees (5 to 20 CHF a month depending on the institution and profile), sometimes handling fees. These are the only ones most clients look at — even though they generally weigh three to ten times less than the exchange margin itself.
An international transfer that leaves the domestic circuit passes through one or more intermediary banks. Depending on the option chosen at issuance — OUR (the sender pays everything), SHA (shared charges) or BEN (the beneficiary pays) — each of them can take a cut along the way. This is why an amount can arrive 15 to 40 EUR short without any statement clearly explaining it.
Within Switzerland, CHF transfers to a Swiss IBAN go through the domestic clearing system SIC, operated by SIX, with no intermediary bank. It is this difference in routing — domestic then SEPA, instead of an international SWIFT transfer — that removes the correspondent fee item.
An international transfer offered "with no fees" says nothing about the rate applied. A free transfer carrying a 2% margin costs, on 6,000 CHF, 120 CHF — far more than a transfer charged at 10 CHF with a 0.40% margin, which comes to 34 CHF. The only figure that matters is the final amount credited in euros, not the number of fee lines.
Rather than take our word for it, measure. You need a statement showing a CHF to EUR conversion, and its date. The method works for any institution and any currency pair.
The EUR/CHF reference rate is published every working day by the European Central Bank. Take the one for the day the conversion actually took place, not today's — the rate moves, and comparing two different dates ruins the whole calculation. Example used here: 0.9300.
Divide the amount debited in francs by that reference rate.
6,000 CHF ÷ 0.9300 = 6,451.61 EUR at the market rate.
Take the euro amount that actually reached the account, after everything has been deducted.
Observed amount credited: 6,356.00 EUR.
Subtract, then divide by the theoretical amount.
6,451.61 − 6,356.00 = 95.61 EUR of real cost.
95.61 ÷ 6,451.61 = 1.48% effective margin.
Multiply that amount by the number of operations in the year: that is your annual exchange cost, the one no statement totals up for you.
Redo this calculation on three different months. Exchange margins are not contractual: they can vary with the day, the amount, the channel used (app, branch, adviser) and your client segment. A single measurement can mislead you in either direction. Three measurements give a reliable average — and a solid basis for discussion, whether with your bank or to compare with the rates published elsewhere.
Take the most common case in Haute-Savoie, the Ain or the Pays de Gex: a salary of 6,000 CHF paid every month and repatriated in full into euros, that is 72,000 CHF converted over the year.
Put differently: over a fifteen-year cross-border career, the cumulative gap runs into tens of thousands of francs, without a single statement line ever having flagged it. That is precisely what makes this cost so easy to ignore — it never presents itself as an expense.
The ibani schedule is tapered: 0.40% up to 10,000 CHF, then 0.35%, 0.30%, 0.20% and down to 0.15% on the largest volumes. A bank margin, by contrast, is rarely tapered for a private client: the house rate is applied the same way at 2,000 CHF and at 40,000 CHF, barring individual negotiation. The gap therefore widens mechanically on large transfers — a property sale, a second pillar withdrawal, an annual bonus. See the full pricing schedule →
Many cross-border workers believe they have escaped exchange costs because their employer pays in francs and "the French bank takes care of the rest". In reality, the conversion does happen, and somebody charges for it — the only question is who, and whether you can see it.
The employer or the Swiss bank (UBS, BCGE or another cantonal bank, Raiffeisen, PostFinance…) converts before sending. You receive an amount in euros in your account in France, Italy or Germany. The rate applied appears nowhere in a readable form, and you have no point of comparison at the moment the operation takes place. This is the most opaque scenario.
The francs leave as they are towards a eurozone account (Crédit Agricole, CIC Lyonnaise de Banque, Banque Populaire, Caisse d'Épargne…). It is then the receiving bank that converts, at its own rate, on an inbound flow it never had to win from a competitor. The Swiss statement keeps no trace of it: it simply shows that an amount in francs left.
Sometimes the francs are converted into euros on the Swiss side, then reconverted or reprocessed on the residence side — for instance when an intermediate foreign currency account is used, or when a transfer passes through a correspondent bank that applies its own exchange. Two margins are then taken on the same sum. If the amount credited looks abnormally low with no explanation, that is the first hypothesis to test with the method in section 3.
The logic of a personal Swiss IBAN at a specialised intermediary is to make this step visible and negotiated: the employer makes an ordinary Swiss domestic transfer, the conversion is carried out at a rate whose margin is published, then a SEPA transfer delivers the euros. The route is shorter, and above all every step is identifiable. For the practical detail of this setup, see the guide on repatriating your Swiss salary and, on the account question itself, opening a Swiss bank account as a cross-border worker.
An honest comparison has to say where the other side wins. On several needs, a bank simply has no substitute, and a currency exchange service has no ambition to become one.
Deposits held with a bank in Switzerland are covered by the deposit guarantee managed by esisuisse, up to 100,000 CHF per depositor and per institution. A currency exchange service does not take deposits: the funds entrusted to it are transitional funds, intended for the immediate execution of an operation, and held separately from the company's own funds. To store savings, you need a bank account — no argument.
Mortgage, consumer credit, leasing, bank guarantee, rental deposit: these are reserved activities that a financial intermediary does not carry out. A property financing file also assumes an established banking relationship and an account history — see buying property in the border region on a CHF salary.
Debit or credit card, cash withdrawals, cheque deposits, a physical branch, direct debits: the current account remains the everyday tool. A currency exchange service acts on a flow, not on spending.
Interest-bearing savings accounts, bank third pillar, securities, investment plans: all products that belong to institutions authorised for them. On the third pillar and pension provision, see the Swiss three-pillar system.
Almost nobody has an interest in leaving their bank. The useful question is narrower: on the conversion alone, who applies the better rate, and what does that gap represent over twelve months? You keep your bank account for savings, credit and payment methods, and you hand to a specialised service the one operation where the price gap is significant.
✅ Bank account kept in the country of residence: everyday spending, savings, mortgage, direct debits.
✅ Personal Swiss IBAN at a specialised intermediary given to the HR department: the salary arrives there by Swiss domestic transfer, the conversion happens at a published margin, and the euros leave by SEPA to the main account.
Result: nothing to change on the employer's side, nothing to close on the bank's side, and the only genuinely expensive item — the conversion — drops from over a thousand francs a year to under three hundred.
A traditional bank remains indispensable for everything to do with deposits, credit and payment methods. Its weakness lies elsewhere: currency exchange is not the business it champions, it is a side margin taken on a rate the client never sees. As long as that cost stays invisible, it is never discussed.
ibani does not claim to replace a bank, and could not: it is a financial intermediary specialised in a single operation — conversion and transfer. On that specific operation the margin is published, tapered, and the gap with a classic bank margin runs into hundreds of francs a year for a cross-border salary.
The test takes three minutes: take your latest statement, apply the method in section 3, and look at the figure. Only then does the comparison mean anything.
Opens in 5 minutes · No sign-up fee · Margin published from the first franc
Yes, but it does not appear as a fee line. The bank does not give you the interbank market rate: it applies its own house rate, degraded compared with the reference. The gap between the two is its revenue on the operation. On bank statements, only explicit charges are visible — transfer fees, handling fees; the exchange rate margin itself is invisible because it is already built into the converted amount. On the retail CHF/EUR market, that margin is usually between 1.5% and 2.5%, and can exceed 3% on small amounts.
In four steps, with a statement in front of you. 1) Note the EUR/CHF reference rate on the date of the operation, published by the European Central Bank. 2) Work out what you should have received: the CHF amount divided by that reference rate. 3) Note the EUR amount actually credited. 4) Take the difference between the two, then divide it by the theoretical amount: that is your margin as a percentage. Example: 6,000 CHF converted at a reference rate of 0.9300 gives a theoretical 6,451.61 EUR; if your account is credited with 6,356 EUR, the margin is 95.61 EUR, or 1.48%.
No, and it would not be a good idea. ibani does not replace a bank account: it offers no credit, no mortgage, no payment card and no savings account. The service covers a single operation — converting and transferring currency. You keep your bank for everything else, and you simply stop routing through it the money that needs converting.
No. ibani SA is a financial intermediary within the meaning of article 2 paragraph 3 of the Swiss Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering (AMLA), affiliated with the self-regulatory organisation SO-FIT. ibani carries out no banking activity: no interest-bearing deposits, no lending. The exact legal framework is set out at the bottom of this page.
No, and this is an important difference to understand. The Swiss deposit guarantee managed by esisuisse protects deposits held with a bank, up to 100,000 CHF per depositor and per institution. As ibani is not a bank, the sums entrusted to it are not deposits: they are transitional funds intended for the immediate execution of a currency conversion and transfer, held separately from the company's own funds. If your goal is to park capital, what you need is a bank account, not a currency exchange service.
Both options cost an exchange rate margin, but it is not taken in the same place and is not visible in the same way. If the employer or the Swiss bank converts before sending, the margin is taken on the Swiss side and you receive an amount in euros without ever seeing the rate applied. If the francs leave as they are towards a eurozone account, it is the receiving bank that converts, at its own rate — often the less favourable of the two — and the Swiss statement keeps no trace of it. In both cases the question to ask is the same: exactly what rate was applied, and how far is it from the day's reference?
On a salary of 6,000 CHF a month repatriated into euros, that is 72,000 CHF a year, a bank margin of 1.5% represents 1,080 CHF a year and a margin of 2.5% represents 1,800 CHF, on top of which come transfer fees of 5 to 30 CHF per operation. The ibani schedule at 0.40% on that volume represents 288 CHF a year, with no transfer fees. The annual gap is therefore between 852 CHF and 1,872 CHF depending on the margin your bank actually applies and the number of transfers.
ibani SA is affiliated with SO-FIT as a financial intermediary. SO-FIT is a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for the supervision of the financial intermediaries referred to in Article 2 para. 3 of the Swiss Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the Financial Sector (Anti-Money Laundering Act, AMLA).
ibani SA is not a bank and carries out no banking activity. Sums entrusted in the course of a currency conversion and transfer are not deposits and do not fall under the Swiss deposit guarantee.
Comparison provided for information purposes. ibani's terms were collected in August 2026 from the public pricing schedule; the bank margin and fee ranges are orders of magnitude observed on the retail CHF/EUR market and do not constitute the schedule of any particular institution. Each bank's terms vary by institution, client profile and channel used. This page is reviewed every quarter. SO-FIT — self-regulatory organisation
