Skip to content Alternatives after bankruptcy
Important info: In June 2024, the FINMA opens bankruptcy proceedings against FlowBank.
At present, the Bank in liquidationwhich is why she asked Schwiizerfranke to remove the FlowBank experience report.
According to the information available to date, there were still sufficient funds in the bank to pay out all customers, so that no customer lost money has. Find out more below.
If you are looking for a FlowBank Alternative you will find an overview of some brokers here:
| Swissquote | Saxo Bank | Degiro | Cornèrtrader | Postfinance | Interactive Brokers | Migros Bank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Fees & Costs | - Order fees from CHF 5 for shares and ETFs - Custody fees CHF 20 - CHF 50 per quarter | - Order fees at least CHF 3 or 0.08% of the order volume (Classic) • Since 2025: Custody fees free of charge | - Order fees from CHF 1 and an additional CHF 1 for processing - Custody fees free of charge | - Order fees from CHF 6 for shares and ETFs - Custody fees Custody fees from CHF 0 (up to CHF 10,000) to CHF 280/year (for CHF 500,000), tax statement CHF 20 | - Order fees from CHF 6 incrementally up to a maximum of CHF 300 - Custody fees CHF 72 / year (credited as trading credit. Expires annually). | - Order fees 0.05% to 1.0% or min. CHF 1.50 to max. CHF 49 - Custody fees free of charge | - Order fees flat rate CHF 40 - Custody fees 0.23% or at least CHF 50 |
| What does an ETF purchase cost for CHF 10,000? | from CHF 9 (selected ETFs) | CHF 8, or free of charge when purchasing via AutoInvest savings plan | from CHF 2.50 (selected ETFs) | CHF 12 (0.12% for Swiss ETFs) | CHF 30 | CHF 5 | CHF 40 |
| Swiss deposit guarantee up to CHF 100,000 |  | | | | | ||
| Special advantages | - Savings plans - Wide range of products (shares, ETFs, options, cryptos) - Interest on cash | - Very low trading fees - Savings plans with free ETFs - Free tax statement - No minimum deposit - Only 0.25 % currency conversion fee - Interest on cash | - Favourable fees - Wide range of products - Intuitive user interface - Free ETF purchases 1×/month | - Interest income on CHF/EUR/USD balances - No custody fees up to £10,000 - Immediate Liquidity access by debit card - A Tax statement for everything - Multi-currency accounts | - Custody fees are credited as trading credit - Simple account connection - Deposit protection | - No custody fees - Very low FX fees - Interest on cash - Extremely wide product selection - Professional tools for traders | - Flat fee for large orders - Swiss customer support - Branches |
| Disadvantages | - Fees could be more favourable | - Entry of registered shares in the share register currently not possible | - No entry in the share register - No Swiss deposit protection | - Higher minimum fees for small transactions - Complex interface for beginners • New custody fees from 2026 (still free of charge up to CHF 10,000) | - Negative interest from CHF 250,000 - Outdated user interface | - No Swiss deposit protection - Customer service difficult to reach | - Account opening Not fully digitised |
| Promotion? | Voucher for CHF 200 trading fees and selected ETFs at a discount | Voucher for CHF 200 trading fees | Voucher for CHF 100 trading fees | Voucher for CHF 250 trading fees | Custody fees given as trading fees | - | - |
| Schwiizerfranke Rating |  |  |  | |  | |  |
| View test report | View test report | View test report | View test report | View test report | Visit IB | Visit MB |
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has authorised the Bankruptcy proceedings opened against FlowBank. This measure was taken to protect depositors. Here is the important information for you:
Securing your deposits and securities:
Further steps:
Unfortunately, nothing more is known so far. There is therefore no need to worry about money, but a reversal will probably take place. How this will look will hopefully be communicated soon.
If you have any questions or uncertainties, please consult the official sources of information or get in touch with the relevant contact person directly.
If you are looking for an alternative, secure and favourable online broker, you will find it here in the Broker comparison found it!
Your key to success! Discover our top recommendations from real testimonials.
Merci beaucoup pour ton Flowbank avis et tes expériences !
Hello Eric, could you please take a closer look at finanzen.net zero? They apparently offer tax-optimised reporting for Switzerland. But I haven't found out yet at what cost. Thank you and greetings Yan
I'll be happy to take a look, thanks for your input, Yan!
I would also be very interested in this! finanzen.net zero is currently increasing its advertising to attract Swiss customers. Basically, it also looks very exciting. A test report on this broker would be great!
I would also be very interested in that!
are test accounts possible?
Yes, there is a demo account
I find the app good for me as a beginner to invest money regularly. However, the tax return is quite annoying. With any other online bank, you can simply download the tax statement for free, here I have to pay for it. It would also be interesting to see how much CHF I have already invested and how much CHF I have lost/gained. I don't know yet how I could get a complete overview.
You can also track your investments using portfolio trackers such as parqet or getquin to keep an overview. I use parqet myself. The basic version is free for securities/ETFs.
Entry in the Swiss share register CHF 0
or in the meantime CHF 50?
Hello
SQ has since changed the fees, e.g. withdrawal is free and the minimum fee is sometimes 5.-.
Hello Dave,
Thank you for your comment on Swissquote. I have updated the CHF 5 (for ETF Leader). Domestic withdrawals are free, but SEPA still costs CHF 2.
Good day
Are monthly or bi-monthly recurring orders possible, as with Swissquote in ETFs?
Unfortunately, there are no savings plans at FlowBank yet.
I'm beginning to suspect that flowbank is playing dirty or is about to go bankrupt. 1 month ago, they always suspended cfd trading 20 minutes after the stock market opened, of course when prices started to rise again, since almost 1 week all cfds have been blocked, apparently a system error, no one writes back to emails, only by phone you are informed half the time. I have invested large sums and open cfd positions that can never be executed profitably by phone, no infomails that something is not working or that other traders are also affected can be found on the net... somehow I can't believe this story, it can't be true...
Hello Sladjana,
I haven't noticed or heard anything else about this so far ... it's best to call customer service again, they are usually easy to reach. If the problem is not resolved, please share it again here with other CFD investors.
I can reassure you. FlowBank is currently experiencing technical problems with CFD trading (for about 2 weeks). However, you can easily place orders by phone at any time. For favourable prices, you just have to show some understanding for a "young" bank. I don't like it either, but I don't see any alternative. Otherwise, everything always went smoothly and I was very satisfied. Let's wait and see until they have solved the problems.
A broker has been having problems with CFD trading for 2 weeks and you call that "I can reassure you"? That's an absolute no-go and highly alarming!
Is anyone else having technical problems?
By the way, I would appreciate if you please comment with real names (first name is enough) to avoid spam. Thank you 🙂
Thank you for the comparison.
Is this current or from previous years?
It is mentioned that the registration in the share register is free of charge, but as far as I know this is not possible.
Can anyone help me?
Thank you very much!
I also wanted to register shares a few days ago, as I thought it was free (as with Swissquote). Unfortunately, I have just been informed that I will be charged CHF 50 per position.
I have been trying to open an account for a month - unfortunately without success. There was a technical error and for the last 4 weeks I have been totally ignored by customer service. No reply to my emails, they can't be reached by phone and the chat - when it does work - can't help either.
Is there a tax statement at FlowBank? How much does it cost?
Thank you and greetings M.
You can order an "official" tax statement from Support for CHF 100. This will then be issued by the "tax department".
Alternatively, you can download various reports in PDF or Excel format free of charge via the web portal. However, there is no total of dividends with or without VST. You can filter out dividend payments in Excel and calculate the individual totals (incl. conversion into CHF). It's a bit tedious, but I'll try it this way.
it would be interesting to get a comparison of the costs (individual different products) Flowbank and meinTrade.ch. So that one can decide depending on the purchase.... Many thanks
I joined at the end of September and got a share for CHF 278 (with >10,000 invested). It only fell afterwards, but I was able to sell it last week at the initial price. According to HP, this share is still available, but only once, subsequent deposits are no longer available.
I find the apps very practical, but I don't have a comparison because I'm a complete beginner. But they still have problems with the system, sometimes nothing can be called up (then the support for trades can be reached for free). The overview is on the HP; it is unusable on Google Chrome, Edge is ok.
The only minus for me: I can't dispose of a certain residual amount of my assets in account 1, there's some kind of error that they haven't found yet. But I was able to buy shares with it over the phone with the support; it's just inconvenient. But I was able to solve the problem by opening a second account and transferring this remaining amount to it; now it is freely available again.
The fee is some obligatory bank fee that you have everywhere, in the range of just under 0.8 %o. The bank, like everyone else, earns money on the spread (difference between ask and bid).
Thanks for all the helpful input!
Just for your information: The FlowBank promo with the free share expires on 30.09.20222 🙁
See https://www.flowbank.com/hubfs/Marketing-offers/July-2022/EN-0-CHF-Commission-Swiss-Stocks.pdf
the action is on again 🙂
A really well done comparison!
Funny that I hadn't heard of flowbank before! Looks exciting!
Hello everybody
Does anyone know how many customers Flow Bank AG has? I can't find any figures on the internet.
Thank you and greetings M.
Thanks Eric, I also opened an account. Activated the account the same day, transferred money and bought a few shares. Buying shares via mobile app worked fine. For each purchase it deducted a few centimes commission, don't know why. Very good design. I liked it very much. At first sight it is better than Swissquote. Now also US shares 0 fees.
Account closure fees: 15.-
Custody fees 0.1%, charged per quarter, min 10.- max 50.- per quarter, plus VAT.
Stock exchange fees and stamp duties are added in CH, even if the trade itself costs 0.-.
Real-time prices only for CHF stock exchanges, all others at least 15 minutes delayed or for all others real-time prices are subject to a charge.
Tax statement 100.-
Currency exchange 0.5%
Merci for the review! I didn't know Flowbank yet! It's exciting that there is a new bank from Switzerland and that it is refreshing the market.
I will have a closer look at the offer 🙂
Han receives a Novartis share worth around CHF 75 for a deposit of twice the minimum amount.
I am satisfied, although it suggests a lot more. Unfortunately, you don't know exactly what you're getting.
Well, that's great! Congratulations on the free share! 🙂 Where else can you get something like that?!
I am very satisfied and have also opened an account based on this post. Thanks for the contribution Eric.
For the registration of registered shares in the commercial register, you can simply contact support, if I have understood correctly.
Thank you Schwizerfranke for your detailed comparison. Could you possibly include Degiro in the comparison (fees, cotnto...etc) in addition to Flow Bank, Swissquote, many Swiss also use Degiro 🙂
- Can you tell me / can someone tell me what amounts you paid in the first time and which/how many shares you got for free.
(from 1000chf you get a free share, what do I get with 2000/3000chf first deposit)?
Thanks for the feedback
Hello Andre
the Comparison Flowbank vs Swissquote vs Degiro vs ... you can find here
Thanks Eric for the link with the comparison, I didn't know you had already done it.
Could you possibly answer my last question? Regarding free shares, with the Flow Bank deposit from 1000chf.
Thank you 🙂
very gladly 🙂
As far as I know, the share is only available once for new customers and not several times.
Love!