Opening a Crypto-Friendly Bank Account
It is the knot that stops more crypto projects than any technical obstacle: opening and keeping a bank account. A company may have a well-qualified token, a solid whitepaper and a clean structure, and still find the doors closed because the bank considers the sector high-risk. In Switzerland there are institutions that work with blockchain businesses, but access is not automatic: it is earned with structure, transparency and documentation. Here is how to prepare.
Why banks hesitate
The issue is not ideological, it is one of money-laundering risk. Every bank is an intermediary subject to the AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Act) and is answerable for the origin of the funds it moves. With crypto-assets, tracing is more complex: funds arriving from wallets, multiple conversions, counterparties that are hard to identify. Faced with this, the institution applies enhanced due diligence and, if it does not obtain clarity, prefers to decline. A rejection rarely means “we do not work with crypto”: more often it means “we were unable to reconstruct with certainty where the money comes from and who is behind it”.
What the bank really looks at
Before opening an account for a company active in the sector, an institution assesses a few key points:
- Source of funds and source of wealth. Where the initial capital comes from and where the receipts will come from. It is the central question: it must be documented, not narrated.
- Beneficial owners. Who controls the company and who benefits from the flows. Opaque structures or unclear chains of shareholding trigger the alarm.
- Business model. What exactly the company does, which tokens it handles, whether it carries out activities that require an authorisation and whether it has adequate safeguards in place.
- Internal AML safeguards. If the company raises funds from third parties, the bank wants to see KYC, monitoring and — where needed — affiliation with a self-regulatory organisation or being brought under a supervised entity.
- Real substance. A structure with governance, an operating address and genuine activity is a credible counterpart; an “empty” company is not.
How to prepare
Opening the account is not the first step: it is the result of a structure built well upstream. In practice this means:
- Clean corporate structure. Suitable legal form, transparent beneficial owners, a linear chain of control.
- Source-of-funds dossier. Documentation reconstructing the origin of the capital and of the expected flows, with statements, contracts and — for funds in crypto-assets — on-chain traceability.
- Description of the business model. A clear document on what the company does, which tokens it handles and where any regulated activities pass through an authorised partner.
- Consistent AML safeguards. If there is fundraising from third parties, the safeguards must be defined and documented before approaching the bank.
- Choice of the right institution. Not all banks have the same appetite for the sector: presenting the dossier to the wrong institution burns time and credibility.
Where it goes through an authorised partner
The management of anti-money-laundering safeguards, financial intermediation and custody on behalf of third parties are activities subject to authorisation. The rule is clear-cut: regulated activities pass through an authorised partner. SIH ONE deals with structuring and consulting — corporate structure, source-of-funds dossier, description of the model, coordination with the institution and with the partners — while activities that require a FINMA/SRO authorisation are carried out through authorised partners, until and unless the perimeter is formalised differently.
The mistake to avoid
The fastest way to have the doors closed is to approach the bank without having prepared the source of funds, hoping to sort out the documents afterwards. The bank does not extend trust in advance: it starts from suspicion and asks for proof. Whoever arrives with a complete dossier turns a defensive conversation into an ordinary assessment. The crypto-friendly account is not a “different” bank: it is the same due diligence, faced with the right transparency.
This content is informational and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice. Institutions’ policies evolve: each case must be assessed individually.
Do you need an account for your crypto company and want to arrive at the bank already prepared? We build the right structure and dossier, with the suitable partners where authorisation is needed. Let’s talk about it.