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Saxo Bank is the cheapest way to invest through a FINMA-licensed Swiss bank. Trades on SIX start at CHF 3, US stocks at USD 1, custody costs nothing, and the Swiss e-tax statement is free. The catches: 0.25% currency exchange, Swiss stamp duty on every trade, and a platform that keeps offering you products you shouldn’t touch.
The Swiss banking licence at a fraction of Swissquote’s running costs, with zero custody fees and a free tax statement. You give up US ETFs, pay stamp duty like at every Swiss broker, and need the discipline to ignore the leveraged products.
Saxo Bank pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
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What Saxo Bank actually costs
Saxo cut its Swiss pricing hard in early 2024, then removed custody fees in February 2025 and made the e-tax statement free. The result is running costs that no other FINMA-licensed broker matches: holding a portfolio costs literally nothing, and only trading and currency conversion cost money. Two numbers decide most Swiss portfolios, the SIX minimum and the currency markup, so here they are first.
| Item | Classic account |
|---|---|
| Commission | 0.08% of order value |
| Minimum per order | CHF 3 |
| Swiss stamp duty | 0.075% (Swiss securities), collected automatically |
| Custody afterwards | CHF 0 |
A CHF 2’000 ETF order on SIX costs CHF 3 in commission plus CHF 1.50 stamp duty, so under CHF 5 all-in. The same order at Swissquote starts around CHF 5 in commission before the quarterly custody fee even begins. Platinum and VIP tiers cut the rate further once your assets or volume qualify; the numbers on this page are the Classic tier everyone starts on. Source: Saxo’s Swiss pricing pages and my own trade tickets, read 16 September 2026.
| Item | Classic account |
|---|---|
| Commission | 0.08% of order value |
| Minimum per order | USD 1 |
| Swiss stamp duty | 0.15% (foreign securities), collected automatically |
| Currency conversion | 0.25% markup when you buy in USD from CHF |
USD 1 to buy US stocks is remarkable pricing from a Swiss bank. The real cost of a US purchase, though, is the pair of percentages around it: 0.15% stamp duty and 0.25% currency conversion add about CHF 40 to a CHF 10’000 US order before the USD 8 commission. That’s still far below what a traditional Swiss bank charges, and it’s why the comparison with Interactive Brokers further down matters.
Currency exchange
Saxo charges a 0.25% markup on the spot rate when you convert currencies. Judge that against both neighbours: Swiss banks typically bury 0.9% to 1.5% in their exchange rates, so Saxo is several times cheaper; Interactive Brokers charges 0.002%, so Saxo is over a hundred times more expensive. Converting CHF 10’000 to dollars costs about CHF 25 at Saxo, CHF 90 or more at a typical Swiss bank, and about CHF 2 at IBKR.
The cheap workaround. ETFs on SIX trade in francs, and many of the big global UCITS funds have a CHF listing there. Buy the CHF-listed line and the 0.25% conversion never happens. You only pay the markup when you deliberately hold foreign currency or buy on a foreign exchange.
Everything else
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Custody | CHF 0 |
| Account minimum | None |
| Inactivity fee | None |
| Swiss e-tax statement | Free from tax year 2025 |
| AutoInvest ETF savings plan | No purchase commission on the eligible ETFs |
| Mutual funds | CHF 8 flat per trade |
| Deposits | Free, by normal bank transfer |
| Transferring securities out | CHF 50 per position |
The transfer-out fee deserves a second look before you commit a large portfolio. Ten ETF positions cost CHF 500 to move to another broker. It’s not a reason to avoid Saxo, but it is a reason to settle on a short list of funds before the portfolio grows, because leaving gets more expensive with every line you hold.
The stamp duty Saxo does charge you
Every Swiss bank and Swiss broker must collect federal stamp duty on securities trades: 0.075% on Swiss securities and 0.15% on foreign ones, on every buy and every sell. Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG is a Swiss securities dealer, so the duty applies here, exactly as it does at Swissquote and every cantonal bank. That’s CHF 15 on every CHF 10’000 of foreign ETFs, and it’s the structural price of the Swiss licence: foreign brokers like Interactive Brokers sit outside the duty entirely. You can’t have the FINMA licence and skip the stamp duty; pick which one you care about.
Why Swiss investors choose Saxo
The Swiss licence at low running cost. Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG is a bank under Swiss law, supervised by FINMA, headquartered at The Circle in Zurich. Your contract is Swiss, your deposits carry esisuisse protection up to CHF 100’000, and your securities are segregated in your favour under the Swiss Banking Act. Until Saxo’s price cuts, that package cost real money every year at any provider; now it costs nothing to hold.
Taxes take minutes. Saxo produces a proper Swiss e-tax statement, free of charge from tax year 2025, that your tax software imports directly. This used to be the strongest argument for paying Swissquote’s fees, and Saxo now includes it at no cost.
A savings plan without purchase fees. AutoInvest automates a recurring monthly ETF investment from a selection of eligible funds with no purchase commission. Set an amount, pick the funds, and the monthly buy happens without you touching anything, which is the single habit that decides whether people invest at all.
Swiss ownership, since 2025. Saxo was founded in Copenhagen in 1992 and its Swiss subsidiary long carried the “Danish broker” label, most recently with China’s Geely group as the largest shareholder. That changed in March 2025 when J. Safra Sarasin, the Basel-headquartered Swiss private banking group, agreed to buy about 70% of Saxo, and in July 2026 it agreed to take over the founder’s remaining stake as well. Saxo keeps operating as a separate bank, and the ownership question that used to hang over it now points at a Swiss banking family.
Saxo has no minimum deposit and no running cost, so opening the account before you feel ready costs nothing. Fund it, set up one AutoInvest plan, and the question of whether you’ll actually invest each month answers itself.
Is my money safe at Saxo Bank?
This is the simplest safety story of any low-cost broker I review, because it’s the same one as at any Swiss bank. Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG holds a Swiss banking licence and is supervised by FINMA. Cash deposits are protected by esisuisse up to CHF 100’000 per client. Securities aren’t part of the bank’s balance sheet at all: under the Swiss Banking Act and the Federal Intermediated Securities Act they’re segregated in your favour, so in a bankruptcy they’d be transferred out to you, not distributed to creditors. Source: Saxo’s own protection of client funds page, read 16 September 2026.
The products to ignore. Saxo also offers CFDs and forex with leverage, and markets them alongside ordinary investing. Saxo’s own Swiss risk disclosure states that 67% of retail investors lose money trading CFDs and forex spot with them. I rate Saxo as a place to buy real stocks and ETFs. If the order ticket says CFD, close the window.
Opening a Saxo account from Switzerland
The application is online, in English, German or French, and takes about 15 minutes to fill in, with an ID and the usual regulatory questions about your experience and finances. There’s no minimum deposit. Answer the experience questions honestly but completely, because ticking “no experience” everywhere restricts which products you can trade and takes a support request to unwind later.
Getting started
As always, I won’t share every single screen here, but enough to give you a flavour of it. I went through the whole thing in my phone browser rather than the app.
Unlucky for me, I started in the evening, so it didn’t take the stated 15 minutes. I had to wait until the morning before the account was open.
The knowledge and experience check
Then comes the check on your knowledge and experience.
Verifying your personal details
Next you verify your personal details.
ID check and signing
And finally you complete the identity verification and digitally sign the documents.
And that’s it. Overall a pretty simple process, with a few delays waiting for emails and screens to update, but no major blockers.
Funding the account
Funding is a normal bank transfer from your Swiss account, free on Saxo’s side, and the money typically arrives within one working day. Set CHF as your account currency so statements and the tax view read naturally.
The platforms: pick the simple one
Saxo runs two platforms on the same account. SaxoInvestor is the one built for the person reading this page: stocks, ETFs, funds and bonds, a clean search, AutoInvest, and none of the trading-floor clutter. SaxoTrader, in the browser, as a desktop app and on mobile, is the professional-grade platform with the full product range, margin and charting tools. A workable setup: SaxoInvestor for everything, SaxoTrader never, unless you genuinely know why you need it.
Taxes: the easy version
This is where the Swiss licence pays for itself in time. Saxo produces a Swiss e-tax statement, free of charge from tax year 2025, that lists your holdings, income and values in the format cantonal tax software imports in one click. The declaration takes minutes, not the hour-plus of manual work a foreign broker requires. If your ETFs hold US stocks, the DA-1 form for reclaiming US withholding tax still exists, but the numbers for it come off the same statement.
Saxo vs the alternatives
Saxo Bank vs Swissquote
The closest fight on the Swiss market, because both are FINMA-licensed banks with esisuisse cover and a Swiss tax statement. On running costs Saxo wins clearly: custody is CHF 0 against Swissquote’s CHF 80 to CHF 200 a year, the e-tax statement is free, and commissions start lower. What Swissquote offers for its fees is everything else a bank does: it’s a listed Swiss company with over two decades as the market leader, and the same login covers savings accounts, pillar 3a, crypto, cards and mortgages, with Swiss support at scale. My money on the “everything in one Swiss place” question stays with Swissquote; if the question is purely what a buy-and-hold portfolio costs at a Swiss bank, Saxo is now the sharpest answer.
The same comparison as a table, built from source-verified data. Pick another provider to check any pairing yourself.
Saxo Bank comparison
| Saxo Bank | Swissquote | |
|---|---|---|
| Swiss trade (CHF 2’000 on SIX) | CHF 3 (0.08%, min CHF 3) | CHF 10 + CHF 0.85 real-time fee; ETF Leaders CHF 9 |
| US trade (USD 2’000) | USD 1.60 (0.08%, min USD 1) | CHF 10 + CHF 0.85 |
| Custody and account fees | None; no inactivity fee; free Swiss e-tax statement | CHF 20–50 per quarter + VAT (max CHF 200 a year) |
| Currency exchange | Up to 0.25% | 0.95% (major currencies) |
| Swiss stamp duty charged | Yes | Yes |
| Savings plan | AutoInvest: 100+ ETFs, no buy commission | Saving Plan with fractional shares, from CHF 3 per execution |
| Who holds your account | Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG, FINMA | Swissquote Bank Ltd, FINMA |
| Notes | A FINMA-licensed Swiss bank with no custody fee. | Swiss bank with a Swiss tax statement. The custody fee comes on top of trading fees. |
| Reader deal | – | CHF 100 trading credit with code MKT_INVESTINGHERO |
| My rating | ★ 4.5 | ★ 4.7 |
| Full review | – | Read the full Swissquote review → |
Checked at source: Saxo Bank 23 September 2026 · Swissquote 23 September 2026
Saxo Bank vs Interactive Brokers
The trade is Swissness against absolute cost. IBKR is cheaper on every line: commissions from CHF 1.50, currency exchange at 0.002% against Saxo’s 0.25%, no stamp duty, and US ETFs like VT that Saxo can’t offer retail clients. Saxo answers with the FINMA licence, esisuisse, a Swiss contract, and a free tax statement against IBKR’s do-it-yourself declaration. Cost-first investors pick IBKR; investors who want Swiss regulation and minimal admin pick Saxo and pay the stamp duty. The online trading comparison puts both brokers’ numbers side by side.
Saxo Bank vs DEGIRO
DEGIRO competes on cheap headline commissions and beats Saxo on some individual trades, but it’s a Dutch-German broker without a Swiss licence, without a Swiss tax statement, and with small platform and exchange fees that add up. Now that Saxo’s custody is free, the case for accepting DEGIRO’s foreign setup to save a franc or two per trade has mostly collapsed.
Who shouldn’t open Saxo
Three honest redirects. If you decide purely by total cost and want US ETFs, Interactive Brokers is cheaper on every line, and the broker comparison shows by how much. If you want banking, 3a, crypto and investing in one established Swiss ecosystem, read my Swissquote review. And if you haven’t started investing at all, the broker is the last decision that matters: start with the investing in Switzerland guide and come back when you know what you’re buying.
My rules for using Saxo
- Live in SaxoInvestor. It has everything a long-term investor needs and none of the leveraged products. If a screen shows margin, leverage or CFD, you’ve wandered into the wrong platform.
- Buy the CHF-listed line where one exists. Many global UCITS ETFs trade on SIX in francs. Buying those skips the 0.25% currency conversion entirely.
- Set up AutoInvest in the first week. The commission-free monthly plan is the best feature of the account, and it only works for you if it’s actually running.
- Keep the fund list short. At CHF 50 per position to transfer out, every extra ETF line is CHF 50 of future exit cost. Two or three funds cover a global portfolio.
Saxo Bank FAQ
Is Saxo Bank safe in Switzerland?
Yes, in the same way any Swiss bank is. Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG holds a FINMA banking licence, cash is protected by esisuisse up to CHF 100’000 per client, and securities are segregated in your favour under the Swiss Banking Act, so in a bankruptcy they’d be transferred to you rather than to creditors. The leveraged products it also sells are a separate risk you can simply not take.
Who owns Saxo Bank now?
J. Safra Sarasin, the Swiss private banking group headquartered in Basel. It agreed to buy about 70% of Saxo in March 2025 from Geely and Mandatum, and in July 2026 agreed to acquire the founder Kim Fournais’s remaining stake, taking Saxo to full Swiss ownership. Saxo continues to operate as a separate bank and Fournais stays as chairman.
What does a CHF 1’000 monthly ETF purchase cost?
On SIX, CHF 3 commission plus CHF 0.75 to CHF 1.50 stamp duty depending on whether the fund counts as Swiss or foreign, so under CHF 5 all-in. Through AutoInvest with an eligible ETF, the purchase commission is zero and only the stamp duty remains. Afterwards the position costs nothing to hold.
Do I pay Swiss stamp duty at Saxo?
Yes. Saxo Bank (Schweiz) AG is a Swiss securities dealer, so federal stamp duty applies on every trade: 0.075% on Swiss securities and 0.15% on foreign ones. It’s the same at Swissquote and every Swiss bank; only foreign brokers like Interactive Brokers sit outside the duty.
How do taxes work with Saxo Bank?
Easily. Saxo provides a Swiss e-tax statement, free of charge from tax year 2025, which your cantonal tax software imports directly. Dividends, holdings and values are all in the right format, and the DA-1 reclaim for US withholding tax uses numbers from the same statement.
Can I buy US ETFs like VT at Saxo?
No. As a Swiss-regulated bank, Saxo doesn’t offer US-domiciled ETFs to retail clients, so funds like VT and VOO are out. The European UCITS equivalents of the same portfolios are available, many with CHF listings on SIX. If US-domiciled ETFs are the point of your strategy, Interactive Brokers is the mainstream route.
Saxo Bank or Swissquote?
Saxo if the question is what a buy-and-hold portfolio costs at a Swiss bank: zero custody, free e-tax statement, lower commissions. Swissquote if you want one established Swiss provider for investing, savings, 3a, crypto and cards, and are willing to pay its custody fee for the ecosystem. Both are FINMA-licensed banks with esisuisse cover, so safety doesn’t decide this one; my Swissquote review argues the ecosystem side.
Is there a minimum deposit or a custody fee?
Neither. There’s no minimum to open, custody fees were removed in February 2025, and there’s no inactivity fee. Fund it with CHF 100, ignore it for a quarter, and it still costs nothing.
Compare & choose
The other comparisons on Investing Hero, each built the same way: every fee read from the provider’s own pricing page.
The online trading comparison lines Saxo up against every broker available in Switzerland, number by number. And if you’re still deciding whether to invest at all rather than where, start with the investing in Switzerland guide.
How this review stays honest. Every Saxo figure was checked against Saxo’s own Swiss pricing and protection pages on 16 September 2026, and those pages are on my fee monitor, so a quiet price change can’t leave this review behind.
Sources. Commissions and charges from Saxo Switzerland’s stocks pricing page and pricing overview; protection details from Saxo Switzerland’s protection of client funds page; all read 16 September 2026. Ownership from J. Safra Sarasin’s announcements of March 2025 and July 2026. Stamp duty rates from the Federal Tax Administration. Swissquote comparison figures from Swissquote’s own account fees page, read the same day. None of it comes from a comparison site. Educational content, not financial advice.
