Swissquote experience (2025): How good and cheap is the Swiss pioneer broker really?

Formerly almost without alternative, today with a lot of competition around the ears: In this detailed review, we want to tell you about our experiences with Swissquote. You will find out where we see the strengths and weaknesses of Switzerland’s largest online broker and for which investors a switch is particularly worthwhile – and for which it is not. Finally, Head of Marketing Jan De Schepper reveals the particular challenges Swissquote is currently facing and which market phases are the most lucrative for his company.  

Swissquote promotional code “MKT_SFB”

If you are convinced by Swissquote’s offer, you can secure a starting bonus in the form of trading credits (fee waiver on trades) when you open an account with the promotional code “MKT_SFB” . You will also be supporting our blog.

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Company history

“We want to be the world’s most advanced and intuitive online bank. We use innovation and technology to challenge and rethink traditional conventions.” This is Swissquote’s vision.

Since its foundation in 1996, Swissquote’s corporate history has been characterized by innovation and growth. The latter has been achieved not only organically, but also through frequent company takeovers.

In the following, we will limit ourselves to those milestones that are likely to be of interest to private investors:

• 1996: Launch of Swissquote
• 2000: Listing on the stock exchange (symbol: SQN)
• 2001: Receipt of Swiss banking license
• 2006: Online trading via smartphone
• 2008: Introduction of savings accounts
• 2014: Strategic partnership with PostFinance
• 2018: Introduction of the multi-currency credit card
• 2021: Launch of the Neobank Yuh(review)
• 2023: Launch of a multi-currency debit card and “Invest Easy” for automated investing in an entire portfolio based on your own risk profile
• 2024: Introduction of savings plans from CHF 3

The fact that Swissquote’s dynamic business model works is also demonstrated by the bank’s pleasing share price performance.

Product range

We consider Swissquote’s offering to be very comprehensive. In total, Swissquote offers over 3 million products , including a wealth of ETFs, tradable on over 50 exchanges around the world.

The best known is probably electronic trading in securities such as equities, investment funds (including ETFs), options/warrants and bonds, as well as account and custody account management for private and corporate clients and asset managers. Swissquote’s competitiveness in its core business is also demonstrated by the fact that the major PostFinance has been processing e-trading exclusively via the Swissquote platform since 2015.

Swissquote was also the first online bank to enable trading in the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin and Ripple back in 2017.

Swissquote also offers other traditional banking services such as mortgages, Lombard loans, savings and multi-currency accounts as well as various payment cards, including the new free, purely virtual “Light” debit card.

Finally, powerful analysis tools, the newly launched robo-advisory “Invest Easy” and even a car leasing service with Tesla underline the company’s broad product range and great innovative strength.

Focus on equity ETFs: Swissquote therefore offers a versatile multi-asset platform for a wide range of investor groups. As you know, we consider the passive, low-cost, broadly diversified buy and hold investment strategy with a focus on the equity asset class to be the most promising in the long term. We are also convinced that such a strategy can best be implemented with ETFs. That is why we have focused on equity ETFs in this review of our Swissquote experience.

Security

Account opening

App and platform

As befits a modern online broker, Swissquote offers both web-based access via the desktop and via the app for mobile devices.

While Swissquote previously presented itself in a rather sober, uninviting look, the new website impresses with its clarity and modern appearance. 

The “Account area” shows you the cash holdings in the three standard accounts in CHF, EUR and USD. But that’s not all: from here you can call up all the important information about your portfolio, such as performance, total value and asset allocation.

The actual trading platform is located in the “workspace”. You can customize this by rearranging, showing or hiding the individual information windows (widgets) to your liking.

In addition to the positions you have already bought, you can compile a “personal list” of securities that are of interest to you. We also find the “Newsticker” widget useful, which keeps you up to date with the latest financial and economic news.  

Swissquote enables you to purchase securities on practically all the world’s major stock exchanges. Well-known ETFs, such as the Vanguard FTSE All-World in the illustration below, are often traded on different stock exchanges and in several currencies. The visualization by means of a country flag indicates the origin of the stock exchange and helps you to select the desired security.

Explanatory video (part 1)

In this first explanatory video, we take a closer look at the account and work area (excluding trades) of the Swissquote e-trading platform:

Prices

Let’s get straight to the point: Swissquote cannot compete with foreign providers such as Interactive Brokers or DEGIRO in terms of price. In a domestic comparison, however, Swissquote offers very attractive fees.

Fee highlights: Flat rate for CHF 9 / savings plans from CHF 3

Custody fees

Custody account fees are independent of transactions. They are charged quarterly at Swissquote and amount to 0.025% of the custody account value, with a minimum of CHF 15 and a maximum of CHF 50. Positive: Swissquote applies a cost cap to custody account fees. The annual maximum fee of CHF 200 is reached from securities assets of CHF 200,000. For values below this, it becomes cheaper up to a minimum of CHF 60 p.a.

The following comparison shows how important a cost cap is for cost-conscious investors with larger assets:

Provider	100’000 CHF	500’000 CHF	1 Mio. CHF
Swissquote	100 (0.10%)	200 (Cap)	200 (Cap)
Migros Bank	230 (0.23%)	1’150 (0.23%)	2’100 (0.21%)
Zürcher Kantonalbank	300 (0.30%)	1’500 (0.30%)	3’000 (0.30%)
UBS	350 (0.35%)	1’750 (0.35%)	3’500 (0.35%)

Custody account fee comparison between Swissquote (with cost cap) and other established Swiss banks (without cost cap): The higher the securities assets, the more important a cost cap is and the better Swissquote performs in the comparison (own research; as at 13 January 2025).

Brokerage fees (transaction fees)

A positive aspect of this important fee item is the flat rate of CHF/USD/EUR 9 (depending on the trading currency), which is moderate by Swiss standards. Swissquote refers to ETFs that benefit from this low flat rate as “ETF Leaders”. These are not unattractive leftover stocks from unknown providers. On the contrary: this category includes hundreds of ETFs from the most renowned providers such as Vanguard or iShares (Blackrock). What they have in common is that they are all traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

We are pleased to report that our research has also revealed that all 14 winning ETFs, which we selected in the article Best ETFs Switzerland and globally following a rigorous multi-stage selection process, benefit from this favorable flat rate. These are

• Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Distributing
• iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (Acc)
• Vanguard FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF Distributing
• Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF 1C
• Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF Distributing
• iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF (Acc)
• Vanguard FTSE North America UCITS ETF Distributing
• Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe UCITS ETF Distributing
• iShares Core MSCI Europe UCITS ETF (Acc)
• Vanguard FTSE Developed Asia Pacific ex Japan UCITS ETF Distributing
• iShares Core MSCI Pacific ex Japan UCITS ETF (Acc)
• Xtrackers Nikkei 225 UCITS ETF 1D
• iShares Core MSCI Japan IMI UCITS ETF (Acc)
• iShares Core SPI (CH)

Here you will find all the ETFs that Swissquote offers at the “ETF Leaders” special rate.

Let’s come back to the costs: A purchase of 50 units of the “ETF Leader” Vanguard All World ETF (VWRL) at a unit price of CHF 94.00 cost us CHF 4,718.25 including the fees of CHF 18.25. Below is a brief breakdown of these transaction-related costs:

• Brokerage fee from Swissquote: CHF 9.00
• Stamp duty (0.15%): CHF 7.05
• Stock exchange fees: CHF 2.20

This means that Swissquote’s fees for our test trade are only around half, with the other half being paid by the federal government and the stock exchange.

If you can’t warm to any of these low-price ETFs, you will pay significantly higher brokerage fees for transaction sums of CHF/USD/EUR 2,000 or more, as the following Swissquote price overview for shares and ETFs shows:

It is therefore obvious that anyone who chooses Swissquote as their broker and wants to invest in ETFs should preferably opt for “ETF Leaders” products with a flat fee of CHF 9. The “normal” tariffs are reminiscent of the Swiss high-price island and are unlikely to be an option for cost-conscious investors. With one exception: if you only invest smaller amounts, e.g. regularly by means of a savings plan, up to CHF 500 or CHF 1,000, there are also only moderate fees of CHF 3 or CHF 5.

Explanatory video (part 2)

In this second video, we show you how ETF purchases and currency exchange work at Swissquote and what transaction-related fees apply.

Stamp duty (transaction tax)

As Swissquote is a Swiss broker, stamp duty is levied on every trade. It amounts to 0.075 percent for funds domiciled in Switzerland (recognizable by the domestic ISIN “CH…”) and 0.15 percent for funds domiciled abroad (foreign ISIN such as “IE…” for Ireland). You can find out more about the taxation of ETFs in our separate tax article “ETF taxes Switzerland: Optimize your portfolio with these 4 tax-saving tips”.

Foreign currency fees

For currency exchange within major currencies, which includes the Swiss franc, the euro, the US dollar, the British pound and the Japanese yen, Swissquote charges a fee of 0.95% . Higher rates apply for so-called minor currencies, which you can find here.

With Swissquote, you can hold almost any number of foreign currency accounts. Foreign currency accounts are advantageous because they can help you save on the relatively high exchange fees. For example, if you already have EUR cash and want to invest in an ETF in EUR trading currency, you will not incur any foreign currency fees. Incoming EUR transfers to your Swissquote Trading account are also free of charge.

Account management fees

At Swissquote, you can manage your cash in different currency accounts free of charge . Practical: When you open an account, you receive a CHF, USD and EUR bank account as standard.

Transfer fees

Encouraging, albeit overdue: Since 1.1.2023, Swissquote no longer charges fees for domestic payments. Previously, a flat fee of CHF 2 had to be paid for outgoing transfers. A no-go for us, which is why we advised against using Swissquote as a traditional house bank when we published this article. Now, this option may once again be an option for some investors. But be careful: If you regularly make international SEPA transfers in euros, you will still be charged a fee of €2 .

Costs for Lombard loans

If you want to invest more riskily, you can leverage your investments with a securities loan (Lombard loan). You can find Swissquote’s current interest rates here.

If Lombard loans are an issue for you, it’s worth checking the offers from the various providers carefully. This is because there are major differences in this niche market, which are ultimately decisive for your performance.

Toni, for example, opted for a Lombard loan from Interactive Brokers at the beginning of 2022, whose (then) low interest rates were ultimately the reason why he has kept his main custody account with IBKR ever since.

Fees for robo-advisory

For those who want to manage their entire portfolio automatically, i.e. not just individual positions in the savings plan, Swissquote offers the option of “Invest Easy”. However, the relatively high total fees of up to 0.81% are likely to deter many private investors. Our comparison of three established robo-advisors shows that it can also be significantly cheaper.

Securities lending as an additional source of income

Securities lending is a free, optional service from Swissquote that offers you an additional way to generate passive income from your existing portfolio. Here’s how it works: Swissquote lends your securities on your behalf to institutions that need them and you receive a share of the returns generated. This share can vary greatly: According to Swissquote, the gross return on securities lent ranges from 0.5% to over 4%, depending on the lending transaction. The returns are credited monthly.

Swissquote ensures that it only conducts securities lending with renowned, top-rated institutions and holds at least 105% collateral.

Even if you lend out your securities, you remain their beneficial owner and continue to receive dividends.

Important: Despite all the security precautions taken by Swissquote, you are taking an additional risk with securities lending. Essentially, this is that in the event of a loss, the value of the collateral may not cover the value of the securities lent . You can find out more about securities lending from Swissquote here.

Support

Swissquote’s support is a clear plus point for us: Competent, free of charge, available in German if required and flexible via telephone, e-mail or chat.

The latter has proven to be particularly efficient for us (unlike telephone inquiries, where we spent 15 minutes on hold shortly before midday): While the robot is good at helping with standard questions, the human support team answers more specific queries. It should be noted that the switch from machine to human must be initiated with the comment “An agent, please”.

The telephone support team once referred us to the contact form when we pointed out a bug in the demo version. (Some widgets in our workspace were no longer displayed correctly). So we filled out the form and attached a print screen with the faulty widgets as “evidence”. We received an e-mail from Swissquote on the same day informing us that it would take two working days to rectify the problem, which it did.

Many people may be less aware that the online bank Swissquote also operates a lounge in Zurich in addition to its headquarters in Gland (VD). Centrally located at Löwenstrasse 62, a five-minute walk from the main train station, you can meet Swissquote in person. And not only, as mentioned above, to open an account, but also to call up stock market information etc. or simply have a coffee in a relaxed atmosphere.

As support in the broader sense, Swissquote offers a wide range of training in the form of free video courses, webinars and eBooks on all aspects of investing. These training formats are primarily aimed at newcomers to the stock market, as the following video on how the stock market works shows.

Suitability

Based on our experience and the research conducted for this review, we believe that the Swiss pioneer broker is particularly suitable for investors who value one or more of the following characteristics when choosing a broker:

• Domestic broker with a Swiss banking license, Swiss deposit protection of CHF 100,000 and over 25 years of successful market experience
• Huge offering with over 3 million products, including a wealth of (niche) ETFs, tradable on numerous exchanges around the world
• Attractive conditions for larger transaction amounts of CHF 1,000 or more thanks to a flat rate of CHF 9/EUR/USD for securities traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange, e.g. ETFs
• New savings plan function: Regular, consistent investments possible at moderate fees from 3 CHF/EUR/USD thanks to fractional trading
• Separate foreign currency accounts, which can save on currency exchange fees
• Competent, German-speaking free support via e-mail, telephone or chat
• Flexible use: Modern, customizable user interface and app for mobile devices
• Everything from a single source: investing, transfers and savings including cards
• Online courses for beginners

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Interview

The following short interview with Jan De Schepper, Chief Sales & Marketing and Member of the Management Board of Swissquote, was conducted in writing on November 9, 2022.

Swiss Finance Blog: What do you currently consider to be the biggest challenge for Swissquote?

Jan De Schepper: We are currently facing various challenges. War in Ukraine, rising inflation and rising interest rates are a difficult market environment. Many investors are unsettled. Added to this is the ever-increasing shortage of skilled workers, particularly in the IT sector. Finding suitable and well-trained employees is difficult and we need to position ourselves optimally on the job market.

In which stock market phases does Swissquote actually generate the most turnover? In bear markets like the current one, where “shaky hands” are selling their securities en masse? Or rather in bull markets, when investors, euphoric by the good mood on the stock market, top up their portfolios at record prices?

Our business model works best when customers trade. The calculation is simple: the more they trade, the more turnover. In terms of stock market activity, we earn the most when the markets are volatile and the underlying sentiment is confident. Long sideways movements are not good for business, although there are also interesting investment opportunities in such market phases, for example with our “Yield Boosters” products. In addition, rising interest rates ensure rising interest income.

With the introduction of a flat rate of CHF 9 for the so-called “ETF Leaders”, which is very moderate by Swiss standards, Swissquote should have become much more attractive to our target audience. Does Swissquote currently have any additional efforts or plans to convince cost-conscious, passive and long-term oriented ETF investors?

The flat rate of CHF 9 applies not only to ETFs, but also to a large number of investment funds and leverage products traded via Swiss DOTS. And yes, we also have interesting, advanced plans to offer even more to cost-conscious, long-term investors. Unfortunately, I can’t reveal any more at the moment.

Conclusion on our Swissquote experience

Our experience with Swissquote has shown that the Swiss market leader offers an attractive overall package for anyone who values an online broker with a Swiss banking license (such as finfluencer Melina Scheuber, as she reveals in this interview ).

This target group also benefits from a modern trading platform and efficient, German-speaking customer support.

However, we believe the decisive criterion for switching to Swissquote is the fair flat rate of 9 CHF/EUR/USD, which Swissquote has introduced for numerous attractive ETFs, among other things. With this clever move, Swissquote is also convincing in terms of price compared to most other Swiss providers.

But even if you only want to invest smaller amounts, e.g. conveniently by means of an automated savings plan, Swissquote has made improvements and significantly reduced the entry-level prices: from CHF 3 for investment amounts up to CHF 500.

And one more thing: on 1.1.2023, Swissquote abolished the fees for domestic payments. In our opinion, this overdue adjustment not only convinces us that Swissquote is a Swiss online broker, it also scores points as a traditional house bank.

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Updates

2025-01-13: New price chart Swissquote vs. UBS added. Fee comparison updated. Various minor adjustments made.

2024-11-19: New savings plan offer with fees from CHF 3 explained and prices updated.

2024-04-11: Various links updated; the new “Invest Easy” tool for automatic asset management and the new, purely virtual free “Light” debit card mentioned; note added that PostFinance has been offering e-trading on the Swissquote platform since 2015.

2024-01-29: Specifies that Swissquote offers over 50 trading venues and more than 9,000 ETFs worldwide at a flat rate of CHF 9.

2023-12-08: Note on the demo account deleted, as this was discontinued on 27.11.2023.

2023-10-05: New chapter on securities lending added.

2023-06-15: Comprehensive product range specified and quantified.

2023-01-04: Text block “Short & sweet” added.

2022-12-12: Text supplemented by new investment plan for regular, automated investing.

2022-12-10: Fees updated: Abolition of fees for domestic payment transactions adopted as of 1.1.2023 (previously CHF 2 fee for outgoing payments).

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Investing involves risks of loss. You must decide for yourself whether you want to bear these risks or not.

Errors excepted: We have written this article about our Swissquote experience to the best of our knowledge and belief. Our aim is to provide you as a private investor with the most objective and meaningful financial information possible. However, should we have made any errors, forgotten important aspects and/or no longer have up-to-date information, we would be grateful if you could let us know.

Transparency note: We, Stefan and Toni, have extensive Swissquote experience, as we have managed and continue to manage our securities accounts on the Swissquote e-trading platform, including via PostFinance, for many years. In addition, we opened a Swissquote demo account for this review, used it to execute trades and tested Swissquote support through various channels.