A number replaces your name on all documents in connection with your account. The numbered account is part of the bank's internal measures to limit the risks of bank secrecy violation.

This procedure helps to further safeguard your confidentiality.

• Only a few people at the bank know your identity. The other employees have no way of knowing who an account belongs to based on a number.
• Your bank transfers are marked: "Bank X for the account of a client".
• Numbered accounts are not anonymous: the bank always knows your identity.

Numbered accounts are subject to the same laws as other bank accounts:

• Bank secrecy will be lifted in the event of a serious crime such as drug trafficking.
• The numbered account offers additional protection for private matters such as inheritance or divorce, for it is up to the plaintiff to identify the bank in which the funds are deposited before the courts can pursue the case. The practice is rendered even more difficult with pseudonym accounts.

Certain precautions of the part of the user are required to ensure optimal confidentiality. Your numbered account is above all an investment account.

Other pages of interest:

Open a numbered account in Switzerland Numbered account management How numbered accounts work