Just came across a new player from Geneva: Alpian. Started in Oct 2022 and got a full banking license from FINMA after 3 years of development. Accounts and payment facilities could be Moustachian (“rates among the most competitive you’ll find”), while the wealth management part is expensive at 0.75% of AuM. Metal debit card sounds a bit over the top.
Nice objective to provide more human touch with video calls to actual people who can give advice. Not sure if I would accept advice from a banker though. No brokerage I can see.
I did not find any pricing sheet, they might be cooking one up as we speak? Any insight from this community? (edit: URL added)
I don’t think we are among their target clients. If we are, I fail to see where the competitiveness in their offer is. CHF 90/quarter isn’t on the cheap side for basic banking services, which is what we are usually after, 0% interest rate on savings accounts doesn’t make it an attractive place to keep money and 0.75% AUM fees doesn’t make them interesting for a do-it-yourself investor.
I fail to understand their forex fee structure. At first glance, it doesn’t seem that competitive in regards to other available options (IB, Revolut, Wise) but that may just be me misunderstanding how their total fees work.
Edit: after reading some more, I see a lot of marketing speech to sell ordinary products. By the way they make it sound, you’d tink a debit card is cutting edge technology up to now only available to a chosen few.
The debit card seems to be made of metal. That isn’t cutting-edge technology but has indeed been only available to a chosen few (with the exception of Neon and, abroad, Revolut).
That said, my Louis Vuitton card wallet has lasted me longer as a status symbol than any bank card, while being less expansive in the long run. Oh, and also I don’t need to worry about ATM failing to spit out my card.
From my point of view, not a solution to consider for a mustachian.
Perhaps for someone who already uses private banking services, this offer could be interesting.
However, and as already mentioned, we are not the target audience for this service. IBKR and any free bank do the same job. For me it is about taking advantage of people’s laziness and ignorance. This reminds me of the latest video by Ben Felix (which I highly recommend, by the way) on this very subject.
In conclusion, there are better options (from a cost point of view) elsewhere at the expense of the time it takes to do the research and comparisons by yourself.
Not a solution for do it yourself investors. However, it might be interesting for those who would like to delegate the management of their portfolio or get investment advices.
TL;DR: I don’t see clearly their value proposition beyond “convenience” - at least for now.
It’s not a high barrier to entry, with 90 CHF/quarter, and unlimited face-to-face consultations over video, but if it ends up being only a “robo-advisor” providing a portfolio based on ETFs etc. - that won’t be worth much.
Exchange fees (card): Neon > Alpian
Exchange fees (transfers): IB > Revolut > Alpian
ATMs (CH + abroad) paid in Alpian, so anything else will do better
Investment fees: 0.75% + 1.25-1.50% = ~2.00% TER
Metal card: Neon > Alpian
I tried to get any info if wealth planning, tax advise, real-estate investment recommendation are available and currently they are not.
Investment options now:
ETFs
ETPs
Mutual Funds
Chosen by the bank based on your “investment profile” and some “knobs” in the app. Minimal investment: 30k
The advisors (private bankers?) are very friendly and seem to try to be very helpful.
–
But even with traditional “high-end” Private Banking - what is the value proposition beyond convenience?
Does anybody has any experience or links to good articles or videos? I would like to take this opportunity with Alpian entering “lower-end” of the market to understand what it is all this Private Banking about
I had become interested in the Alpian project a few months ago and I opened an account with them on the day they launched it for the public. Thus I would like to share a short report about my initial experiences with them during the past two months.
Their customer service has been good and personal: real people answering your questions and doing their best to solve any problem (I had some problems, but they were fixed, and I was provided with detailed and frank explanations about technical issues involved). Two videoconferences with (human) advisors, nice people and helpful information. The kind of service you would expect from a good bank, but online.
One has to consider that this is a new bank. They will still need to offer more, e.g. a virtual debit card — they assured me they are planning to add it soon.
Regarding the remarks by Karol, I agree that I wouldn’t use my Alpian card at ATMs in Switzerland or abroad, there are indeed cheaper options.
Regarding exchange fees, I have been pleasantly surprised (and I didn’t expect it). On two different weekdays, using different several debit / credit cards, I paid within 2 or 3 minutes the same amount of USD 25 to two different merchants (money for provision for future payments). I used Revolut, Neon, Wise, Yuh, Cornèr (credit) and Alpian. In all cases, after conversion, Alpian turned out to be the cheapest. I agree that such comparison has its limitations, since Neon, Wise and Revolut immediately provide the amount in CHF, while the other ones only provide it on the following day. Still, I found it interesting. (On week-ends, Alpian uses a higher FX markup, like several of their competitors do.)
Re quarterly fees: they will be waived in 2023 for customers having at least CHF 50,000 on their investment account with Alpian. If this will continue after 2023, I do not know.
I came across Alpian bank, the first digital private bank in Switzerland. While it offers investment features, I find them unattractive compared to using the IBKR broker for investments. On this investment point, there is this review and discussions, which I find helpful; the general conclusion is that it seems better to just use a plain broker to invest.
However, I think Alpian does have one interesting point worth further discussing: its monthly interest rate for deposits is 1%, which is surprisingly high! Doesn’t this makes Alpian an attractive option for an everyday banking card? If I deposit 10,001 CHF and receive over 100 CHF per month, then this is attractive, even after taking the managing fee of 22.5 CHF per quarter into account.
Of course Alpian is a small bank, so I won’t deposit too much into it. But since it is Swiss licensed, deposits below 10,000 CHF are protected by Esisuisse.
Is there a catch? Can’t everyone just deposit 10,000 CHF into Alpian and gain 100 CHF monthly? I’m unsure if I miss anything—your suggestions are welcome!
The 1% interest rate is surely per year, even though they might not have written that explicitly. It seems they credit the interest monthly but I expect that to be pro-rated, i.e., you’ll get about 0.083% of interest per month. This may be nice but the practical benefit compared to a yearly 1% interest payment is very small.
That said, 1% p.a. up to 100k and 1.5% p.a. between 100k and 250k without strings attached is not a bad offer compared to other banks. Whether it’s worth the managing fee you have to calculate and consider yourself.
@jay@Patirou Thanks both! I see. That’s a good point. If it is 1% annually, then it is not that attractive anymore, although it is not too bad either! On the homepage, I see that the interests are “credited monthly”. I guess this is confusing, as this didn’t say if it is monthly or yearly interest.
BTW, just for those who did not know. Monthly (or quarterly) payment means mandatory “Verrechnungssteuer” of 35% (which will be credited back at the end).
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