On this website you will find information regarding dormant assets held at Swiss banks, for which the last customer contact was at least 60 years ago and the value of which is above CHF 500 or is unknown.
As of 1 January 2015, the Swiss Banking Act, the Banking Ordinance as well as the Guidelines of the Swiss Bankers Association demand that assets of bank clients with a total value exceeding CHF 500 have to be published after having been without contact for 10 years and dormant for another 50 years, e.g. after a total of 60 years. These assets will be liquidated and transferred to the Swiss federal government if no beneficiary has submitted a justified request within a given delay. The procedure also applies to safe deposit boxes with a value of more than CHF 500 or unknown value.
If you believe that you may be entitled to such assets, you can submit a request for them, which will be passed on to the bank concerned. For this purpose, please click on "Publications" and then on the relevant entry. You can then fill out a request form, upload the supporting documents and send the request. You may also submit a request as the representative of the beneficiary, e.g. as their lawyer.
IMPORTANT: In the spaces provided, enter as much information about the account holder as possible (e.g. previous addresses, profession(s), place(s) of work, names of close relatives, etc.). In particular, you must explain and document your relationship with the person in question whose name has been published and provide evidence of your entitlement to the dormant assets. Documents that may be accepted as proof include: certificate of inheritance, death certificate, official family record book, birth certificate, marriage certificate, ID of the potential account holder, certificate of residency of the potential account holder, old account documents, etc. The following formats are supported: .pdf, .jpg, .png, .gif.
The more information you are able to enter in the fields, the easier it will be for the bank in question to confirm or reject your entitlement. As the applicant, it is mandatory that you provide proof of identification. If a legal representative is submitting the application, a power of attorney signed by both parties must be uploaded. Please be aware that banks reserve the right to reject applications for which insufficient information and documentation is provided. Naturally, you may re-submit your application with additional information up until the end of the publication period.
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required fields and must be completed. Only leave fields blank if you cannot provide any relevant information.
The deadline for submitting requests is one year from the date of publication or, in the case of assets for which the last customer contact was in 1954 or earlier, five years.
The bank will examine your request and contact you as soon as possible. Please note that the processing and evaluation of your request may take several weeks/months.
If a request is clearly unfounded, and the person making the claim cannot credibly demonstrate a connection with the assets claimed, the bank may require that person to reimburse the costs incurred by the bank in examining the claim (Article 53 (3) Banking Ordinance).
If no requests have been received by the time the deadline expires, or if the bank finds that the claims made are not justified, the bank must hand over the assets in question to the Federal Finance Administration, in which case all rights of former customers to the assets become null and void.
If you require further information or have questions contact the Central Claims Office of the Swiss Banking Ombudsman.
Central Claims Office: Swiss Banking Ombudsman, Bahnhofplatz 9, CH-8021 Zurich, tel: +41 43 266 14 16
For further information on dormant accounts at Swiss banks go to www.swissbanking.org.