The essentials

Management made easy

By holding a custody account with the BCGE, you decide on your investments and the bank carries out on your behalf all the laborious dividend, coupon and bond redemption operations, etc.

Safekeeping for your securities

Keep your investment documents safe and out of reach by depositing them in a BCGE custody account. They will be safe from loss, theft and damage (fire, water damage, etc.)
 

Very easy to open

Linked to your custody account, you only need to have a current account in the same currency as your securities.

Further information

Conditions

Linked to the custody account, a current account is opened in the currency of your choice.

Segregation of securities

As required by regulatory provisions in Switzerland, the BCGE separates its own securities from those of its clients in its own accounts and in those held with a central custodian in Switzerland. In addition to this collective segregation, as a client of the bank, you may also ask for individual segregation of your securities deposited by us with a central custodian in Switzerland. We inform you of the level of protection which is provided by individual segregation as opposed to collective segregation.
When securities are deposited with a central custodian in Switzerland, the degree of legal protection for individual segregation is equivalent to that provided by collective segregation. The law stipulates that, if a custodian is subject to proceedings for compulsory liquidation, the liquidator shall exclude from the custodian's estate, up to the level of available assets held in its accounts, those intermediated securities credited to a securities account maintained by the custodian for its account holders with a central custodian. This means that, if the bank were to be placed in compulsory liquidation, both in the case of collective segregation and in that of individual segregation, the securities which we hold for you with a central custodian shall automatically be excluded from the custodian's estate, and you have an absolute right to obtain such exclusion.
Therefore individual segregation only facilitates, for operational purposes, the identification of your assets in the event that proceedings for compulsory liquidation are opened against us. However, it is useful in cases involving a very large volume of securities with numerous movements.
Due to the need for individualised processing of the securities which are the subject of individual segregation, the custody fees are much higher than in the case of collective segregation. Your adviser will inform you of these extra costs on request.