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Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money, and then disappear into the ether. Banks are not always able to find out what has become of these silent customers, or to know whether they should follow up on requests from people who claim to be heirs to the accounts. The main problem is that the customer resides abroad and, due to bank secrecy, the bank cannot publish notices in the international press to locate the depositaries. This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from opening small-deposit accounts for foreign customers, for fear that they will forget that the account exists.

It has happened in the past, however, that customers pass away and their heirs can neither prove the death, nor their heirship. This was a frequent occurrence during the wartime periods, and the banks have now set up a simple, rapid resolution procedure operating to their customers’ advantage.

Dormant assets are defined as any assets deposited with a bank (i.e. an account, a custody account or a safety-deposit box) for which there has been no contact with the customer in the bank’s files for the last ten years or more.

If you believe you have claim to a Swiss bank account for which the holder (e.g. an ancestor) has not been in contact with the bank for over ten years, there is a fairly simple procedure to follow, depending on the date the account was opened:

• Accounts opened prior to 1945
• Accounts opened after 1945

Please note that we offer no services in this matter and that we are not a banking institution.