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Alpian is a FINMA-licensed Swiss bank in Geneva, majority owned by Intesa Sanpaolo, running a free multi-currency account, a pillar 3a built entirely from BlackRock funds, and discretionary management from CHF 2’000. The small print worth reading in 2026: 0% on francs, CHF 2 per cash withdrawal in Switzerland, product costs you can’t see until you’re in the app, and no funding from neon, Yuh, Revolut or Wise.
The most complete single app in Swiss banking, and the only account on my shortlist that puts real discretionary management next to a free current account. Your money sits at a licensed Swiss bank in Geneva, your securities are held in your name at Interactive Brokers and stay outside the insolvency estate, and the advisor calls are free and unlimited. It isn’t the cheapest way to own index funds and it isn’t the card to travel with. It scores highest because nothing else in Switzerland does this much in one place at this price.
What is Alpian?
Alpian is a Swiss digital private bank based in Geneva, licensed by FINMA in March 2022 and majority owned by Fideuram, the private banking arm of Intesa Sanpaolo. One account gives you a Swiss IBAN across francs, euros, dollars and pounds, a pillar 3a built from BlackRock index funds, and a managed portfolio from CHF 2’000 with unlimited advisor calls included. Holding the account costs nothing.
It leads my best bank in Switzerland list. The trade-offs are the 0.75% standard investing fee, CHF 2 for every cash withdrawal in Switzerland, and a card that is not the one to travel with.
What Alpian actually costs
Alpian splits cleanly in two. The banking half is free and the pricing page says so in one line. The investing half is where the money is made, and that’s priced like a private bank rather than like a broker, because that’s what it is.
Banking
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Multi-currency account, opening and closing | CHF 0 |
| Virtual cards | CHF 0 |
| Visa metal debit card | CHF 60 on request, and CHF 60 to replace; free on Signature |
| Card payments in CHF, EUR, USD, GBP | CHF 0 |
| Currency exchange | 0.2% on weekdays, 0.5% at weekends |
| ATM withdrawal in Switzerland | CHF 2, or 5 units in EUR, USD or GBP |
| ATM withdrawal outside Switzerland | 2.5% of the amount |
| Incoming transfers in CHF, EUR, USD, GBP | CHF 0 |
| Outgoing CHF, USD, GBP within the currency zone, and EUR within SEPA | CHF 0 |
| Outgoing transfers outside the currency zone | 7 in the account currency (CHF 7, USD 7 or GBP 7) |
| Interest on CHF balances | 0% |
| Interest on the CHF savings account | 0.01% below CHF 125’000, 0.10% above |
| Interest on EUR and USD balances | 0.75% and 1% on the portion between 10’000 and 500’000 |
Multi-currency, decoded. One Swiss IBAN holds CHF, EUR, USD and GBP. If you already hold euros and you pay in euros, nothing gets converted and the 0.2% never applies. The markup only bites when Alpian has to exchange for you, which makes holding the currency in advance the way to avoid it. The weekend rate is 0.5%, so a Saturday card payment in a fifth currency costs more than the same payment on Tuesday.
Investing, pillar 3a and vested benefits
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Standard plan, all mandates | 0.75% per year |
| Signature plan, up to CHF 300’000 invested | 0.69% per year |
| Signature plan, CHF 300’000 to 500’000 | 0.60% per year |
| Signature plan, above CHF 500’000 | 0.50% per year |
| Custody, transactions, deposits, withdrawals, closing a mandate | CHF 0 |
| Wealth advisor consultations | Free, unlimited |
| Swiss stamp duty | 0.075% or 0.15% of the transaction |
| Product costs inside the mandates (per portfolio shown only in the app) | About 0.25% on average |
| Moving securities to another bank | CHF 120 per position |
| Pillar 3a | 0.60% per year |
| Pillar 3a fund costs, per Alpian’s strategy factsheets | 0.14% to 0.17% |
| Pillar 3a withdrawal for a home purchase | CHF 400 |
| Pillar 3a payout when leaving Switzerland | CHF 500 |
| Pledging your 3a for a mortgage | CHF 100 |
| Vested benefits (plus 0.25% to 0.34% fund TER) | 0.60% per year |
Source: Alpian’s pricing page and fee brochure valid from 13 July 2026, the pillar 3a strategy factsheets and Alpian’s FAQ, read 24 September 2026. Market costs, meaning the bid-ask spread and any FX on the underlying trades, sit on top of everything above.
The mandate fund costs are only in the app. Every fee above is published except the fund costs inside the investment mandates, which Alpian shows per portfolio only in the app. Its FAQ gives an average of about 0.25% for a diversified portfolio, which puts a standard mandate at roughly 1.00% a year before stamp duty and spreads. For the 3a, Alpian’s own documents disagree: the strategy factsheets give 0.14% to 0.17%, the pricing page and fee brochure 0.25% to 0.35%. The factsheets are the more specific source. Ask an advisor for the number that applies to your strategy. The calls are free and unlimited, so use one before you fund anything.
The everyday account and the card
The banking side is a proper Swiss account. You get a Swiss IBAN, so salary, rent, standing orders, QR bills, eBill and TWINT all behave the way they do at any bank, and there’s no monthly fee and no plan grid to be upsold into.
What’s unusual for a free Swiss account is that the IBAN holds four currencies at once. CHF, EUR, USD and GBP live in the same account, incoming transfers in all four are free, and card payments in all four are debited from the matching balance with no conversion. If you’re paid partly in euros, or you pay a mortgage or school fees in another currency, that’s a genuine saving.
The cards are where the free account stops being free. Virtual cards cost nothing and work with Apple Pay and Google Pay immediately. The metal Visa debit card is CHF 60, and another CHF 60 if you lose it, unless you’re on the Signature programme where it’s included. Cash is the other weak spot: CHF 2 for a withdrawal in Switzerland, and 2.5% of the amount abroad, both worse than the free Swiss app accounts.
Francs earn nothing here. CHF balances pay 0%, and the CHF savings account pays 0.01% under CHF 125’000. Euros and dollars are treated completely differently, at 0.75% and 1% on the portion between 10’000 and 500’000. If you keep a large franc cushion, Alpian is not where it should sit. There’s also a 5% a year charge if you push the account negative.
Investing: three mandates, one philosophy
Alpian invests exclusively through ETFs, across Swiss, US, European, Asian and emerging market equities, government and corporate bonds, commodities and precious metals, a small crypto sleeve, and thematic funds. Portfolios are hedged into francs by default, which strips out the currency swings that make a lot of Swiss investors’ euro-heavy portfolios look worse than the underlying markets did.
| Mandate | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Essentials | CHF 2’000 | Four ETF plans, five risk profiles, rebalanced daily. The beginner option. |
| Guided Premium | CHF 10’000 | You place the orders, Alpian sends tailored recommendations. Rebalance as often as you like. |
| Managed Premium | CHF 30’000 | Fully personalised discretionary strategy with expert adjustments. |
The fee thresholds apply to each mandate separately, so running two smaller mandates doesn’t combine them into a cheaper band. Custody, transactions, deposits and withdrawals are all free, and closing a mandate costs nothing, so the running fee genuinely is the running fee once you know the fund costs. Two details from the fee brochure: the Signature rates come with a free membership, open once you hold CHF 150’000 with Alpian or invest at least CHF 1’000 a month, and moving your ETFs to another bank instead of selling them costs CHF 120 per position.
Alpian publishes performance for its balanced portfolio, the 40 to 60% equity discretionary strategy, at 22.70% net of fees from the end of 2022 to 30 April 2026, verified by Performance Watcher. That’s a real number rather than a backtest, though three and a bit years of a strong market is a short window to judge anyone on.
Who actually holds your money. Alpian’s custodian for investments is Interactive Brokers, which is an unusual answer from a Geneva private bank. The securities are registered in your name, so if either Alpian or the custodian failed, your ETFs aren’t part of the estate. Alpian also states it takes no retrocessions, and passes through anything it can’t avoid. For a bank that sells discretionary management, that’s the arrangement you want.
The pillar 3a
Alpian’s 3a is invested 100% in BlackRock funds, across nine strategies with a Swiss, Global or Global plus Crypto focus, the last of which carries a 5% Bitcoin allocation. The fee is 0.60% a year, split between the foundation (0.30%), the custodian bank Reyl (0.125%) and Alpian (0.175%). It does not include the funds’ own costs, 0.14% to 0.17% according to the strategy factsheets, and Alpian’s FAQ says VAT comes on top while its fee brochure says fees include it. Alpian refunds the 2026 fees to its first 1’000 3a clients, but its 2025 results already reported more than 1’000, so don’t count on the refund if you open now. The first transfer has to be at least CHF 300, after which you can add from CHF 1, and an existing 3a has to be moved across in full. For early withdrawals the foundation charges CHF 400 for a home purchase, CHF 500 if you leave Switzerland and CHF 100 to pledge the account.
The foundation behind it is lemania-pension, through the Fondation romande en faveur de la prévoyance individuelle liée, supervised by the cantonal authority for foundations and pension institutions. Your 3a assets are held separately from both Alpian’s and the foundation’s own balance sheets.
For 2026 the deduction is CHF 7’258 if you have a pension fund. On cost, my pillar 3a comparison puts 0.60% next to everyone else, and finpension at a flat 0.39% is cheaper once the launch waiver ends. What Alpian buys you in the meantime is a free year and a 3a that sits in the same app as your salary.
Two things to weigh before you move a 3a here. First, Alpian currently lets you hold only one 3a account, which blocks the staggered-withdrawal trick that saves real tax at retirement; other providers let you run several. Second, Alpian discloses in its own small print that BlackRock is a major shareholder of Intesa Sanpaolo, its parent, and the 3a is built entirely from BlackRock funds. Disclosing it is the right thing to do, and it’s still a conflict you should price in.
Open Alpian with the code HEROCH and you get a CHF 120 welcome package: CHF 55 paid into your account once you’ve funded it with at least CHF 500, plus up to CHF 65 in investment fee credits. On a Managed Essentials mandate at the CHF 2’000 minimum, that CHF 65 covers well over four years of the management fee.
Who is behind Alpian
Alpian was incorporated in Geneva in October 2019, incubated by the private bank REYL, and spent its first years as a pre-launch story. FINMA granted it a banking licence in March 2022, announced that April alongside a CHF 19 million funding round, and the app opened to the public in October 2022 as Switzerland’s first digital private bank.
Ownership sits with Fideuram, the private banking arm of Intesa Sanpaolo, which took majority control through its stake in REYL. ALPIAN S.A. is registered at Quai du Seujet 18 in Geneva and regulated by FINMA.
Where the licence sits. Unlike Yuh, which runs on Swissquote’s licence, and neon, whose accounts sit at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, Alpian holds its own Swiss banking licence. Deposits at a licensed Swiss bank carry esisuisse protection up to CHF 100’000 per client. Your investment holdings sit outside that entirely, registered in your name at the custodian.
Opening an account with Alpian
Ten minutes, phone only. You need an original passport or national ID (photocopies are refused) and the app from the App Store or Google Play. Enter your details, complete the ID check in-app, and put HEROCH in the referral code field during sign-up.
You don’t need your residence permit yet. If you’ve just arrived with a job offer, Alpian will onboard you on three documents: a valid Swiss residential address, a valid identity document, and your employment contract. Upload those and the account opens, so there’s somewhere for your first salary to land. The permit goes into the app later, whenever it’s finally issued, and there’s no deadline on it. The normal answer is come back when you have the permit, which is difficult when the permit process assumes you already have an account.
Getting started
Sign-up itself is phone only; alpian.com is where the download links live if you’re starting from a laptop.
Starting the application
The first screens create your login and confirm your contact details, then hand over to the in-app identity check.
The bonus code
The referral field is part of sign-up. Enter HEROCH here and the CHF 120 welcome package attaches to the account before it even opens.
Personal data
Then the paperwork: address, nationality, tax residency and employment. It’s the standard set a FINMA-licensed bank has to ask for, and it’s the longest stretch of the ten minutes.
Your first deposit can’t come from a neobank. Your account only activates once the first deposit lands, and that deposit has to come from an account in your own name at a licensed bank in Switzerland or a FATF country. FINMA rules mean Alpian cannot accept transfers from providers without a banking licence, and it names them: neon, Yuh, Revolut, PayPal and Wise are all refused. Given that neon and Yuh are the two accounts I recommend most often, plan the first transfer from a cantonal bank, PostFinance, Swissquote or wherever your salary lands. It also has to be CHF 500 in one go to trigger the reader bonus.
Logging in for the first time
Once you’re verified you can log in, and the first job is the activating deposit. The funding rules above apply here: CHF 500 in one go, from a licensed bank, in your own name.
Two sections worth opening straight away. Wealth holds the savings account, the pillar 3a and the investment mandates. Advisory is where you book the free call with a wealth advisor, which is worth doing before you fund a mandate so you can ask for the fund costs on your strategy.
Where Alpian is beaten
On pure cost, comfortably. A broker and one global ETF will run you a fraction of 0.75% a year, and my robo-advisor comparison has several Swiss options below Alpian’s rate with their product costs published in full. On the 3a, finpension’s flat 0.39% wins the moment the launch waiver expires. If the cheapest possible total cost is the thing you’re optimising, Alpian is not your answer and won’t pretend to be.
On everyday banking it loses to the free app accounts on two specifics: cash and francs. CHF 2 a withdrawal at home and 2.5% abroad are both beaten by neon, and 0% on franc balances is worse than leaving the money almost anywhere else. The four-currency IBAN is the counterweight for anyone whose money isn’t all in francs.
My honest read: Alpian earns its place at the top of the shortlist for the person with somewhere between CHF 2’000 and a few hundred thousand who wants it managed, wants to ask a human about it, and doesn’t want a second app to do it. Use a free Swiss account for cash and francs alongside it. Plenty of people will end up running both, and that isn’t a failure of either.
You can also check any pairing yourself. Pick an account and the comparison builds from the same source-verified data as the rest of this page.
Alpian comparison
| Alpian | neon | |
|---|---|---|
| Account fee | Free (account and opening) | 0 CHF (free plan) |
| Card | Visa metal card CHF 60, on request | First card CHF 20; replacement CHF 20 |
| Card payments abroad | 0.2% weekdays / 0.5% weekends | 0.35% card surcharge; ATM abroad 1.5% |
| TWINT | TWINT Prepaid only | TWINT Prepaid only |
| Apple Pay | Yes | Yes |
| Interest | 0% current account; savings 0.01% (below 125k) / 0.10% (above) | 0% (none since Dec 2024) |
| Notes | Own Swiss banking licence. TWINT only via TWINT Prepaid. | Plans changed on 18 Sep 2026: the free plan now charges for the first card and a 0.35% FX surcharge. TWINT only via TWINT Prepaid. |
| Reader deal | CHF 120 welcome package with code HEROCH | CHF 10 welcome bonus with code investinghero |
| My rating | ★ 4.7 | ★ 4.5 |
| Full review | – | Read the full neon review → |
Checked at source: Alpian 23 September 2026 · neon 23 September 2026
Alpian pros and cons
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My rules for using Alpian
- Fund it from a real bank, not a neobank. Alpian refuses first deposits from neon, Yuh, Revolut, PayPal and Wise. Send the CHF 500 from a cantonal bank, PostFinance, Swissquote or your salary account, or the account simply won’t activate.
- Don’t park francs here. CHF pays 0%, and 0.01% in the savings account below CHF 125’000. Euros and dollars are the exception. Keep your franc cushion somewhere that pays, and use Alpian for the currencies and the investing.
- Get your mandate’s TER from an advisor before you fund it. The management fee is published; the fund costs inside the portfolio aren’t. The calls are free and unlimited, so there’s no reason to sign up without that number.
- Skip the metal card unless you want it. It’s CHF 60, and another CHF 60 if it goes missing. The virtual cards are free and work with Apple Pay and Google Pay from day one.
- Think twice before moving an existing 3a in. Alpian allows one 3a account per client, so consolidating here removes the option to stagger withdrawals across several accounts later. The free year is worth having; check the structure against your retirement plan first.
Alpian FAQ
Is Alpian safe?
Alpian holds its own Swiss banking licence, granted by FINMA in March 2022, and is majority owned by Fideuram, part of Intesa Sanpaolo. Cash deposits at a licensed Swiss bank carry esisuisse protection up to CHF 100’000 per client. Your investments are separate and better protected than that. They’re registered in your name with the custodian, Interactive Brokers, so they don’t form part of anyone’s estate if a bank or custodian fails. The 3a is held at the lemania-pension foundation, ring-fenced from Alpian’s own balance sheet.
Is the Alpian account really free?
The account, the IBAN, the virtual cards, incoming transfers in the four main currencies and most outgoing ones cost nothing, and there’s no monthly plan. Alpian earns its money on the investment mandates, the 0.2% currency markup, the CHF 60 metal card, cash withdrawal fees and the 0% it pays on your francs. That’s a fair trade if you invest through it, and a poor one if you only want a free current account.
How does the CHF 120 welcome package work?
Enter HEROCH in the referral field while you’re opening the account. You get CHF 55 paid into the account once you’ve funded it with at least CHF 500, plus up to CHF 65 in investment fee credits applied against your management fee. The CHF 500 has to arrive from a licensed bank, not from a neobank, or the account won’t activate at all.
What does investing with Alpian actually cost?
0.75% a year on the standard plan, falling to 0.69%, 0.60% and 0.50% for Signature members as you cross CHF 300’000 and CHF 500’000 in one mandate. Custody, transactions, deposits, withdrawals and closing a mandate are free, and so are the advisor calls. On top come Swiss stamp duty of 0.075% or 0.15% on trades and the ETFs’ own costs, which Alpian shows only in the app but puts at about 0.25% on average, so roughly 1.00% a year on the standard plan.
Is the Alpian pillar 3a worth it?
Alpian refunds the 2026 fees to its first 1’000 3a clients, and that quota is probably already taken. The regular cost is 0.60% a year plus 0.14% to 0.17% fund costs, invested entirely in BlackRock funds across nine strategies. That’s more than finpension’s flat 0.39%, and my pillar 3a comparison has the current numbers side by side. You can only hold one 3a account at Alpian, so it doesn’t suit a staggered withdrawal plan.
Can I open an Alpian account without a Swiss residence permit?
Yes. If you’ve just moved here and the permit hasn’t come through yet, Alpian will open the account on three things: a valid Swiss residential address, a valid identity document and your employment contract. You upload the permit through the app later, once it’s issued, with no deadline attached. Most Swiss banks want the permit before they’ll open anything, which is awkward when you need an account for your first salary.
Why won’t Alpian accept my transfer from neon or Revolut?
FINMA rules require the activating deposit to come from an account in your own name at a licensed bank in Switzerland or a FATF country. neon, Yuh, Revolut, PayPal and Wise don’t hold banking licences in their own right, so Alpian names them as refused. Use a cantonal bank, PostFinance, Swissquote or wherever your salary is paid.
Alpian or a robo-advisor?
A robo-advisor is cheaper and publishes its total cost. Alpian is more expensive, doesn’t publish the fund costs, and gives you a bank account, four currencies, a 3a and unlimited access to a human advisor in the same place. If you want the lowest number, take the robo; my robo-advisor comparison ranks them on total cost. If you want one relationship that covers everything and someone to call, that’s what the extra buys.
Can I take my money out whenever I want?
Yes. There are no lock-in periods. Managed mandates sell at the next rebalancing, which runs every weekday the markets are open, and Guided orders go at the next midday cut-off. Trades take two working days to settle, after which the cash is in your account. Closing a mandate is free.
Who actually holds my investments?
Interactive Brokers is the custodian for investment mandates, and Reyl, part of Intesa Sanpaolo, for 3a assets. In both cases the securities are legally yours rather than the bank’s, which is what keeps them outside the estate in an insolvency.
Compare & choose
The other comparisons on Investing Hero, each built the same way: every fee read from the provider’s own pricing page.
My best bank in Switzerland shortlist puts Alpian next to every other Swiss account and explains where it wins and where a free app account still beats it. Every reader code I have, including this one, lives on the reader deals page.
How this review is kept current. Every Alpian figure on this page was read from alpian.com on 5 September 2026, and the investing and pillar 3a figures were re-checked on 24 September 2026, not taken from a comparison site. Licence and ownership details come from Alpian’s own announcements and the company’s regulatory disclosures. The referral code and welcome package come from my Alpian partnership.
Sources. Fees, mandates, custody and product details were read from Alpian’s own pages on 5 September 2026: the pricing page (conditions effective 15 February 2026), the investing page and the pillar 3a page. Banking licence, funding round and launch dates come from Alpian’s April and October 2022 announcements. Balanced portfolio performance is Alpian’s own published figure, net of fees, for 31 December 2022 to 30 April 2026, verified by Performance Watcher. Nothing is quoted from a comparison site. Educational content, not financial advice, and investing carries the risk of losing money.
