13 minutes read 1. Why does Qonto not accept Swiss companies?
Because Switzerland falls outside its licensing perimeter. Qonto opens accounts to companies registered in eight countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. Switzerland is not among them, and that holds for every Swiss legal form, from the sole proprietorship to the SA.
The mechanism is the same one that explains the absence of most European providers in Switzerland. An institution authorised in a European Union country benefits from the services passport: its national licence is valid throughout the European Economic Area without a new authorisation. Switzerland belongs neither to the European Union nor to the EEA. Serving clients there requires an authorisation issued by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, obtained for that market specifically. That is a project in its own right, not an extension of coverage.
What a European account cannot do for a Swiss company
Some founders work around the issue by keeping their French company and invoicing from France. That is a structuring decision, not a banking trick, and it carries heavy tax and social consequences: where the profit is taxed, Swiss VAT liability, social insurance affiliation, the real substance of the entity. The subject goes well beyond the choice of an account, and our guide to cross-border B2B invoicing between Switzerland and the EU sets out the tipping points.
Once the company is genuinely Swiss — entered in the cantonal commercial register, with a UID number — it needs an account in its own name, in Switzerland, for three concrete reasons: depositing the capital at incorporation, issuing QR-bills to Swiss clients, and settling its obligations in francs, from social contributions to VAT.
2. Who is allowed to receive the capital of a Sàrl or an SA?
Only an institution subject to the Swiss Banking Act. Article 633 of the Code of Obligations, which governs the incorporation of the SA and to which the Sàrl is subject in the same way, requires cash contributions to be deposited with such an institution, in a blocked account, with the funds released only once the company is entered in the commercial register. That account is known as the capital deposit account, and the certificate it produces is the document the notary requires in order to execute the deed of incorporation.
The amounts are set by legal form. A Sàrl requires share capital of at least CHF 20,000, which must be paid in full, as the federal SME portal confirms. An SA requires share capital of CHF 100,000, of which at least CHF 50,000 must be paid in at incorporation.
The recent opening to fintech authorisations
One development is worth knowing, because it changes the shortlist. The Swiss Federal Commercial Registry Office has accepted in its practice that institutions holding a FINMA fintech authorisation, under article 1b of the Banking Act, may issue capital deposit certificates. That authorisation, created for providers that accept public deposits of up to CHF 100 million without investing or paying interest on them, is described on the dedicated FINMA page, and the list of holders is published by the authority.
In practice, this opens digital incorporation to providers such as Relio, a Swiss institution holding that authorisation, which offers a fully online capital deposit account. For a founding team spread across several countries, the difference is considerable: a process that required a branch appointment becomes a digital file.
3. Which alternatives genuinely accept a Swiss company?
Four families, which do not answer the same need. The table below separates them on the two criteria that actually decide: access to the capital deposit, and the presence of a Swiss IBAN usable day to day.
| Solution | Swiss company accepted | Swiss IBAN | Capital deposit | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cantonal bank, large bank, Raiffeisen | Yes | Yes | Yes | Varies by institution and canton |
| PostFinance (CHF business account) | Yes, companies based in Switzerland | Yes | Yes | CHF 5 per month |
| Relio (FINMA fintech authorisation) | Yes | Yes | Yes | On quotation, depending on the company profile |
| Revolut Business | Yes | Virtual Swiss IBAN | No | From CHF 10 per month (Basic plan) |
| Wise Business | Yes | CHF receiving details, outside the SWIFT network | No | CHF 55 one-off |
| Specialist FX provider (ibani) | Yes | Swiss transit IBAN, not a deposit account | No | No subscription, margin on conversion |
| neon | No — private account only | — | — | — |
| Qonto | No — eight countries, not Switzerland | — | — | — |
Terms and prices checked on 4 September 2026 with the institutions named. These grids change: verify them at the source before deciding.
Established banks: slow to open, essential afterwards
A cantonal bank, a large bank or a Raiffeisen covers the whole requirement: capital deposit, operating account, cards, credit, and a contact who knows the local fabric. It is the natural base for a company invoicing Swiss clients from Geneva, Lausanne or Zurich. The price to pay is the opening time and the documentary requirements, particularly when the shareholders are foreign — more on that in section 5.
PostFinance occupies a particular place: the business account in francs is charged at CHF 5 per month and the institution states that all companies based in Switzerland can open one. It is often the simplest coverage-to-price ratio for a small structure whose activity is mainly domestic.
Swiss digital providers: the real substitute for Qonto
This is the category that holds the functional equivalent of what founders were looking for at Qonto: digital onboarding, a fast process, an interface designed for a team rather than for a counter. Relio, which also covers the capital deposit, is the best documented example as at this review date. The family is young and the offering moves fast; it is the one to re-check before every incorporation.
Foreign multi-currency accounts: useful, but never on their own
Revolut Business gives access to a virtual Swiss IBAN and team cards, on plans whose entry level was raised to CHF 10 per month in March 2025 and which reach CHF 79 per month for the Scale plan. Each plan includes a monthly interbank-rate exchange allowance, beyond which a fee applies — that is the parameter that decides the real cost for a company converting regularly.
Wise Business is settled with a one-off opening fee of CHF 55, with no subscription, and provides receiving details in more than eight currencies. One limit is worth knowing before relying on it to collect in francs: Wise states that its CHF account can only accept incoming payments in francs and cannot receive transfers routed through the SWIFT network. For a domestic Swiss collection that has no effect; for a client outside the SEPA zone paying in francs, it can block.
4. Which apps do not take legal entities?
Worth knowing before opening a file. neon does not offer a business account: the institution writes in its FAQ that it cannot offer a business account, neon being a purely private account, and it specifies that this also applies to freelancers. Comparison tables showing a neon Business product are wrong.
The general rule holds for every consumer app: a private account serves a natural person. Using it to collect a company's revenue falls outside the provider's terms and conditions, and a company entered in the commercial register needs an account in its own name in any case, if only to keep its books straight.
Three concrete frictions with a non-Swiss IBAN
- The QR-bill. Switzerland's standard invoicing format is built around a Swiss or Liechtenstein IBAN. Without one, you cannot issue the invoice your Swiss clients expect and that their accounting software reads automatically.
- Direct debits in francs. The Swiss direct debit scheme, used by many suppliers, insurers and social funds, requires an account domiciled in Switzerland.
- Conversion you do not control. A payment in francs landing on a euro-denominated account is converted by the receiving institution, at a margin it sets and does not always display. You lose control of both timing and rate.
For a sole proprietorship starting out the logic is different and often more flexible: our guide to invoicing in your own name below CHF 100,000 covers the self-employed case, where the obligation to hold a separate account is not the same as for a legal entity.
5. How do you open an account when the founders live abroad?
This is the most common case among those who were looking at Qonto, and the least well anticipated. Two obstacles stack up: a legal requirement on representation, and a banking requirement on client due diligence.
The Swiss representation requirement
The Code of Obligations requires the company to be capable of being represented by a person domiciled in Switzerland: article 718 paragraph 4 for the SA, article 814 paragraph 3 for the Sàrl. That person may be a board member, a managing officer or a director, but must hold the necessary signing authority. This is not a banking preference, it is a condition for entry in the commercial register: failing it, the company has an organisational defect.
Enhanced checks on the source of funds
A Swiss company owned by non-residents is subject to markedly more demanding verification than one owned by residents. The institution must identify the beneficial owner, understand the real activity and document the origin of the capital contributed. Capital coming from a business sale, an inheritance or a foreign account will have to be traced document by document. That requirement is no formality: it is what lengthens the timeline and, sometimes, what motivates a refusal with no further explanation.
The full incorporation sequence, from choosing the legal form to transferring capital from abroad, is set out in our guide to setting up a company in Switzerland: capital and rules. To check an entity's existence and entries, the central Zefix register is free and authoritative.
6. What does the international leg really cost?
The dominant cost for a Swiss SME buying abroad is not its account subscription, it is the margin applied to the exchange rate. It appears nowhere on a statement: it is built into the rate itself, which makes it painless in the short term and considerable over a financial year.
The arithmetic is simple. Take a company settling EUR 40,000 of supplier invoices every month, or EUR 480,000 a year.
| FX margin applied | Monthly cost | Annual cost | Annual gap versus 1.5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5% (low end for a commercial bank) | EUR 600 | EUR 7,200 | — |
| 0.60% | EUR 240 | EUR 2,880 | EUR 4,320 |
| 0.35% | EUR 140 | EUR 1,680 | EUR 5,520 |
| 0.20% | EUR 80 | EUR 960 | EUR 6,240 |
The annual gap far exceeds the price of any business account in the section 3 table. That is what justifies treating separately two questions that are often conflated: where the company holds its account, and through which channel it converts its currencies. Nothing requires them to be the same provider, and most SMEs that optimise their treasury seriously do not use one.
On top of conversion costs, the SWIFT rail adds correspondent fees deducted along the way, so the beneficiary receives less than the amount sent. The choice of rail — SEPA in euros, SWIFT outside the zone — therefore weighs as much as the margin itself on some destinations. Our guide to optimising foreign supplier payments sets out that trade-off, and the guide to multi-currency accounting covers matching and exchange differences on the balance sheet side.
ibani assigns your business named Swiss IBANs, one per transfer route, with a degressive margin from 0.40% to 0.15% depending on the amount converted, and no opening, account maintenance or SEPA transfer fee. These are not deposit accounts but transit accounts: they do not replace the company's operating account and do not appear on its balance sheet. ibani is a Swiss financial intermediary established in Geneva since 2018, not a bank.
See the business offer →On the timing of conversion, which often weighs more than the margin on large amounts, the real-time CHF/EUR converter gives the exact amount received, and our analysis of the macroeconomic factors behind the EUR/CHF rate sets the frame. For treasury that must be secured in advance, a forward rate lock is the appropriate tool.
7. Which set-up fits your situation?
Three profiles cover the vast majority of cases.
Local Sàrl, Swiss clients, few currencies
One account is enough. PostFinance or the cantonal bank of your registered office covers the capital deposit, the operating account and the QR-bill, at a marginal monthly cost. Adding a multi-currency account at this stage complicates the bookkeeping for no gain. The FX question will arise the day a foreign supplier appears in the invoices, not before.
Start-up or company with foreign shareholders
This is the profile for which the Qonto rejection hurts most, and the one for which Swiss digital providers holding a fintech authorisation make the most sense: they cover both the capital deposit and the operating account in an online process, without requiring dispersed shareholders to appear in person. Do still plan for the Switzerland-domiciled representative the law requires, and a complete source-of-funds file from the outset.
Company with regular EUR or USD flows
Two building blocks, not one. A Swiss operating account for day-to-day life and obligations in francs, and a dedicated FX provider for conversion and international payments. That is the configuration that produces the savings quantified in section 6, and it requires no change of bank: the funds leave the existing account and return to it.
Six questions to ask before signing
- Can the institution issue a capital deposit certificate, or only open a current account?
- Is the IBAN provided a Swiss IBAN that allows QR-bills to be issued?
- What is the FX margin actually applied, expressed as a percentage gap to the interbank rate — and not merely "no commission"?
- Is a monthly exchange allowance included, and what does exceeding it cost?
- Do the funds benefit from deposit protection, or does the institution operate under an authorisation that excludes it?
- Is a representative domiciled in Switzerland already identified in the governance?
To place these choices within the wider set of Swiss company obligations, our business in Switzerland guide gathers the full section, from incorporation to taxation.
Sources: Qonto, account opening and countries covered · Fedlex, Code of Obligations (art. 633, 718 para. 4, 814 para. 3) · Federal SME portal, Sàrl: liability, share capital, formation · FINMA, fintech authorisation (art. 1b BA) · PostFinance, business account in CHF · Revolut, Business plans for Switzerland · Wise, CHF transfers · neon, business account · Relio · EasyGov, online desk for companies · Zefix, central business register
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you open a Qonto account for a Swiss company?
No. Qonto opens accounts to companies registered in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. Switzerland is not on that list. The reason is regulatory rather than commercial: Qonto operates under a European authorisation that is valid across the European Economic Area thanks to the services passport. Switzerland belongs neither to the European Union nor to the EEA, so that passport does not apply and a separate Swiss authorisation would be required. The founders' nationality changes nothing: what counts is the country where the company is registered. A French entrepreneur who owns both a SAS in France and a Sàrl in Geneva can use Qonto for the first, never for the second.
Who can issue the capital deposit certificate for a Swiss Sàrl?
Only an institution subject to the Swiss Banking Act. Article 633 of the Code of Obligations, which governs the incorporation of the SA and to which the Sàrl is subject in the same way, requires cash contributions to be deposited with such an institution, in a blocked account, with the funds released only once the company is entered in the commercial register. A Sàrl requires share capital of CHF 20,000 paid in full, an SA requires share capital of CHF 100,000 of which at least CHF 50,000 must be paid in. No European neobank can issue that certificate, whatever its licence in its home country. The Swiss Federal Commercial Registry Office has, however, opened this possibility to holders of a FINMA fintech authorisation under article 1b of the Banking Act, which is what allows a provider such as Relio to offer a fully digital capital deposit account.
Does Revolut Business give a Swiss company a real Swiss IBAN?
Revolut Business gives access to a virtual Swiss IBAN for accounts opened in Switzerland, which is enough to collect and pay in francs on domestic payment traffic. Two limits remain. First, Revolut Business does not offer a capital deposit account, so it cannot be used to incorporate the company, only to run it afterwards. Second, the offer has moved to paid plans: the entry-level Basic plan has cost CHF 10 per month since March 2025, and higher plans reach CHF 79 per month for Scale. Each plan includes a monthly interbank-rate exchange allowance, beyond which a fee applies. These figures were checked on 4 September 2026 and should be re-verified with Revolut before any decision.
Can you use a neon account for your business?
No. neon states it explicitly in its FAQ: it cannot offer a business account, because neon is a purely private account, and this applies to freelancers too. The answer holds for a sole proprietorship as much as for a Sàrl or an SA. Comparison tables that list a neon Business product are wrong. The general rule is simple: using a private account to collect a company's revenue falls outside the provider's terms and conditions, and a company entered in the commercial register needs an account in its own name anyway, for its bookkeeping, its VAT and its social security contributions.
Can a Swiss company operate with a foreign IBAN?
Technically yes for euro collections, but three points of friction appear quickly. The Swiss QR-bill, now the standard invoicing format, is built around a Swiss or Liechtenstein IBAN: without one, you cannot issue the invoice your Swiss clients expect. Swiss direct debits, used among others for certain contributions and insurance premiums, also require an account domiciled in Switzerland. Finally, a payment denominated in francs that lands on a euro-denominated account is converted by the receiving institution, at a margin it sets and does not always display. A Swiss operating account therefore remains the base; a foreign or multi-currency account makes sense alongside it, not instead of it.
How much does currency exchange cost when a Swiss SME pays suppliers in euros?
The cost is measured as a margin on the exchange rate, not as a transfer fee. On EUR 40,000 of invoices settled every month, a 1.5% margin represents around EUR 600 per month, or EUR 7,200 per year; a 0.35% margin brings the same operation down to EUR 140 per month, or EUR 1,680 per year. The annual gap far exceeds the cost of any business account subscription, which is why an SME often has an interest in separating the two questions: the operating account on one side, currency conversion on the other. The ibani grid is degressive, from 0.40% to 0.15% depending on the amount converted, with no opening or account maintenance fee.