Swissquote has warned
around 600 customers about possible account closures, most of them users of its
digital banking subsidiary Yuh.
The notices were sent
to Russian citizens living in Switzerland, including some with permanent
residence. Swiss financial blog Inside Paradeplatz and Russian publication
Frank Media reported the move.
The move comes as financial firms across
Europe face additional compliance requirements linked to Russia and Belarus.
Finance Magnates reported that new EU
sanctions controls could lead to thousands of governance and counterparty
reviews across authorised crypto firms.
Swissquote Cites Costs Behind Account
Closures
The accounts have not
been closed. Swissquote CEO Mark Burky told Frank Media that the bank had
contacted the affected customers and was reviewing possible solutions.
Burky said the
decision was indirectly linked to Russian citizenship but was driven by
economic considerations. Serving Russian customers requires additional checks
on the origin of assets, sanctions screening and monitoring of banking
activity.
“The reasons are
exclusively economic in nature,” Burky said.
He added that the
revenue generated by Yuh customers was too low to cover those costs.
“The revenue from
customer service in the Yuh application is very small, so the monitoring costs
are too high to continue such a relationship,” he said.
Swissquote schliesst 600 Konten von in der Schweiz lebenden Russen https://t.co/NLzRjG5fD4
— cash (@cashch) August 17, 2026
Swiss Citizenship Cases Under Account
Review
Some notices were also
sent to Russian nationals who hold Swiss citizenship. Burky said these cases
could be the result of incomplete customer information, as Swissquote does not
always have details of a customer’s second citizenship. The bank is reviewing
such cases.
Swissquote does not
currently plan to extend the action beyond the roughly 600 customer
relationships already identified, according to Burky.
Inside Paradeplatz,
however, reported that the number of affected accounts across Swissquote and
Yuh could be higher than the figure disclosed by the CEO.
The discrepancy has
not been resolved publicly. For now, the reported notices concern potential
closures rather than completed account terminations.
This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.
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