The chairman of the Swiss National Bank has already been encouraging Swiss savers to change banks for some time. Now a study has shown that Thomas Jordan’s advice is worth billions.
Each year, Swiss banking customers lose over 13 billion Swiss francs because they do not switch to the most affordable banking offers. This is shown by an analysis published by online comparison service Moneyland.ch on Tuesday.
Mortgages Have the Greatest Potential
To calculate how much money is lost each year, the service analyzed the average savings potential offered by various bank products and extrapolated this to the entire customer base in Switzerland.
The result: the annual savings potential for banking customers across Switzerland is around 13.4 billion Swiss francs. Naturally, the most money lost is in mortgages, where there are larger sums of money at play. According to the analysis, this is 4.8 billion Swiss francs across Switzerland.
Cards Also Cost Too Much
This is followed by the widespread savings accounts with 2.5 billion francs. According to Moneyland.ch, 2.4 billion francs can be saved in the management of assets. There is more than 2 billion francs to be saved in private accounts and debit cards. For credit cards, this is 570 million and in online trading, 410 million francs.
The extrapolation proves Thomas Jordan right; in a vote last November, the chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) called on Swiss savers to look for the best interest rates in the country.
Swiss banking customers are becoming more willing to change banks, but this is still at a low level, as observed by Moneyland.ch.
Competition Starting to Pick Up
After the interest rate reversal, the competition for savings is slowly starting to pick up. Banks such as Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) or Migros Bank have recently improved the terms of their savings account offerings to a broad audience. Now the customers just have to take advantage.
«Even people who do not use mortgages, stock brokerage, or asset management could save an average of 1210 francs per year,» says Benjamin Manz, CEO of Moneyland.ch.
