Swissquote Warns 600 Russian Customers of Possible Account Closures

Swissquote has warned around 600 customers about possible account closures, most of them users of its digital banking subsidiary Yuh.The notices were sent to Russian citizens living in Switzerland, including some with permanent residence. Swiss financial blog Inside Paradeplatz and Russian publication Frank Media reported the move.The move comes as financial firms across Europe face additional compliance requirements linked to Russia and Belarus. Finance Magnates reported that new EU sanctions controls could lead to thousands of governance and counterparty reviews across authorised crypto firms.Swissquote Cites Costs Behind Account ClosuresMark Burky, Swissquote CEOThe accounts have not been closed. Swissquote CEO Mark Burky told Frank Media that the bank had contacted the affected customers and was reviewing possible solutions.Burky said the decision was indirectly linked to Russian citizenship but was driven by economic considerations. Serving Russian customers requires additional 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 was too low to cover those 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.Swissquote schliesst 600 Konten von in der Schweiz lebenden Russen Swiss Citizenship Cases Under Account ReviewSome notices were also sent to Russian nationals who hold Swiss citizenship. Burky said these cases could be the result of incomplete customer information, as Swissquote does not always have details of a customer's second citizenship. The bank is reviewing such cases.Swissquote does not currently 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 resolved publicly. For now, the reported notices concern potential closures rather than completed account terminations.