The Swiss Bankers Association unveils new guidelines for banks that could make it easier for cryptocurrency/blockchain companies to open corporate bank accounts
Faced with an exodus of cryptocurrency projects from the country due to falling access to the banking sector, the Swiss Bankers Association …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second half of a one-two regulatory punch in 2018: months after the financial supervisor issued guidelines clarifying when AML and securities law apply to ICOs, the Swiss Bankers Association is now tackling the other chokepoint — banks refusing corporate accounts. The trigger is concrete: crypto projects have been leaving Switzerland because they cannot bank there.
First-order effects
- Blockchain and crypto companies operating in Switzerland gain a documented framework for opening corporate accounts, directly addressing the exodus of projects that lost banking access.
- Banks get industry-endorsed cover for onboarding crypto clients, shifting the decision from individual compliance departments' risk aversion to a shared standard.
Second-order effects
- Specialist entrants like Seba — which days later secured ~$104M in funding contingent on a Finma banking license — are racing to become the regulated crypto bank that incumbents decline to be, betting the licensing route beats waiting for retail banks to follow the guidelines.
- Other financial centers competing for crypto domiciles must respond with their own clarity on banking access or cede incorporations to Zurich and Zug.
Third-order effects
- The pattern holds across the corpus: supervisor guidance in 2018, banker guidelines in 2018, a national tokenization push by 2024 (officials reframing perceptions of a diminished banking industry), and UBS reportedly planning crypto investing for private banking clients — Switzerland institutionalizing crypto from tolerated niche to core product line.
- If account-access standards spread beyond Switzerland, the binding constraint on crypto firms shifts from finding any bank to meeting the AML bar those banks codify — favoring licensed, compliant players over offshore alternatives.
The trend: Swiss finance is codifying cryptocurrency into its regulated mainstream, with each guideline and license narrowing the gap between crypto firms and conventional banking.