Swissquote Warns 600 Russian Customers of Possible Account Closures

Swissquote has warned roughly 600 customers that their accounts may be closed, with most of the affected relationships held through its digital banking subsidiary Yuh. The notices were sent to Russian citizens living in Switzerland, including some with permanent residence, according to Swiss financial blog Inside Paradeplatz and Russian publication Frank Media.

The move comes as European financial firms take on additional compliance obligations related to Russia and Belarus. Finance Magnates recently reported that new EU sanctions controls could lead to thousands of governance and counterparty reviews across authorised crypto firms, reflecting the wider regulatory pressure on the industry.

Swissquote CEO Mark Burky told Frank Media that the accounts have not been closed and that the bank has contacted the affected customers while reviewing possible solutions. He said the decision was indirectly linked to Russian citizenship but was driven by economic considerations, since serving Russian customers requires extra checks on the origin of assets, sanctions screening and monitoring of banking activity.

"The reasons are exclusively economic in nature," Burky said. He added that the revenue generated by Yuh customers is too low to cover those monitoring costs. "The revenue from customer service in the Yuh application is very small, so the monitoring costs are too high to continue such a relationship," he said.

Some notices were also sent to Russian nationals who hold Swiss citizenship. Burky said these cases may stem from incomplete customer information, as Swissquote does not always have details of a customer's second citizenship. The bank is reviewing such cases.

Swissquote currently does not plan to extend the action beyond the roughly 600 customer relationships already identified, according to Burky. Inside Paradeplatz, however, reported that the number of affected accounts across Swissquote and Yuh could be higher than the figure disclosed by the CEO. The discrepancy has not been publicly resolved. For now, the reported notices concern potential closures rather than completed account terminations.