Offshore accounts: EU or Switzerland

Hi,

I've read with interest recent posts on deposit safety/offshore deposit accounts. My personal in interest in an offshore deposit accounts is wealth preservation.

I'd be interested in hearing opinions on the relative merits of offshore deposit accounts in the EU (France/Italy) and in Switzerland in terms of tax implications and safety of deposits.

Any thoughts/opinions would be so welcome.

I have been investigating the possibility of opening a non resident acc in Switzerland but the following would appear to put a halt to any possibility of this.

Can I open a Swiss bank account entirely through the Internet?

No. The Swiss banks must follow customer identification procedures in order to comply with Swiss law. Therefore, at the present time, opening an account must be done with some degree of human interaction. The Due Diligence Agreement (CDB 03), adhered to by all Swiss banks requires them to confirm the identity of the potential client and gather detailed information about the signers as well as information about the type of account desired.
extract from [broken link removed]

I cant see any point in moving your money to another E.U. Country purely on safety grounds.

theresa1 said:

I cant see any point in moving your money to another E.U. Country purely on safety grounds.

Click to expand...

Dont intend moving all my savings. Just want some form of diversification for savings and not having all my eggs in one basket.

My reasons for thinking of moving at least some of my deposits to an E.U. Country would be for security in the scenario of Ireland leaving (or being kick out!) of the euro.

Apart from the hassle of opening any account abroad, I was wondering if anyone had experience about the relative merits of an offshore account in an EU country vs Switzerland.

Just on to Ulster Bank in NI and they have confirmed that it is NOT possible to open an account with them without a residential address in NI.

There is merit in the event of Ireland leaving the Euro zone. Imagine waking up to be told that we had left and that all Euros in Irish banks were now converted to Punts. If one had Euros offshore, ir not in Ireland, then they would still be Euros.

You can open accounts in Switzerland and other offshore places. You may not get any interest however and there may be fees involved in opening/managing the accounts.

Ravima

"You can open accounts in Switzerland and other offshore places. You may not get any interest however and there may be fees involved in opening/managing the accounts".

Ravima, Can you point me to any links on this? Thanks.

Ravima said:

.....

You can open accounts in Switzerland and other offshore places. You may not get any interest however and there may be fees involved in opening/managing the accounts.

Click to expand...

Grateful for any information on how to open account in Switzerland. Please see my post above.

Hi Ravima,

I agree with your point about the relative safety of having a euro account in another country in the case of Ireland puuling out of the euro. Our fear in this case is a quick devaluation of our deposits if Ireland switches to punts. If your deposits remained in euro this wouldn't directly affect them.

The more I look the more it seems the Swiss bank option seems laden with hassle and costs. I think moving deposits to an EU country seems preferable.