SWIFT/BIC codes in Switzerland: banks starting with W

Switzerland: banks and their SWIFT/BIC codes

Our directory covers 697 banks and financial institutions in Switzerland. A BIC shows the banks handling a transfer which institution is meant to get the money.

Choose the bank from the list to see its head office code and any branch codes along with tips for payments to and from that bank. The rest of this page explain how the codes work, what transfers cost and the checks worth doing before a payment.

Incoming international payments in Switzerland

For an international payment in Switzerland, the person paying you has to have more than the SWIFT code. Give them the account holder’s name, your account number or IBAN, the BIC of your bank and your address.

Look up your bank in the list on this page. You can add the name and city of your bank because some forms have separate fields for it.

Do not be surprised if the amount credited is below what the sender paid. Correspondent banks can take a fee and your own bank may charge for processing, and when currencies differ, an exchange rate margin comes on top. For business payments, state who bears the costs.

Paying in CHF: what conversion costs you

Switzerland pays in the Swiss Franc, with the currency code CHF. If you send another currency, it gets converted at some point – by your bank, a bank in between or the recipient’s bank.

Who does the conversion has an effect on how much arrives, since every bank sets its own rate. Check how much CHF arrives with different services before choosing one. With bigger transfers, even a small difference in the rate can be worth more than the fee.

Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft and its SWIFT codes

Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft tops our list for Switzerland in the number of SWIFT/BIC codes. Its main office has RAIFCH22XXX; that is usually the right code for a transfer.

Banks differ in whether they register branch codes. If not the recipient asks for a branch, RAIFCH22XXX is fine for a payment to Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft.

What a transfer to Switzerland really costs

When you transfer money to Switzerland through your bank, the fee you see is only part of the cost. You pay a transfer fee, sometimes fees from correspondent banks along the way and, above all, the margin on the exchange rate.

The real cost is often in the rate: banks convert at a rate with a margin built in. Check the rate you are offered against the mid-market rate; the gap is what conversion costs you.

Specialist money transfer services often use a rate near the mid-market rate. Before your next transfer to Switzerland, it is worth to compare the total cost via GoldexPay.

How SWIFT codes from Switzerland are built

A SWIFT code is 8 or 11 characters long. First comes four letters for the bank, followed by a two-letter country code and a two-character location code.

You can spot a bank code from Switzerland by the fifth and sixth characters: they always show the ISO country code of Switzerland. When those two letters point to another country, the code belongs to a bank somewhere else – worth double-checking.

When a code ends in XXX, it means the main office, and the 8-character version leads to the same place. In most cases the head office code is fine.

Check the code before you pay

The most reliable source for a SWIFT code is the bank details provided by the recipient. A wrong code may lead to delays, a payment being sent back or additional charges.

We collect SWIFT/BIC codes from publicly available data and update our list from time to time. Institutions reorganise, close branches and change codes, and no directory catches every change immediately. Use our data as a starting point rather than the last word; the recipient’s bank details are leading. GoldexPay is not a bank and is not affiliated with the banks listed.

Fraudsters often use payment requests carrying changed bank details that look completely genuine. A real SWIFT code tells you nothing about whether a request is genuine: criminals use real codes too.

Banks in Switzerland starting with :letter

This filter limits the list to banks from Switzerland that begin with :letter, so you can find a bank faster. The totals mentioned above still cover the whole country, not just this letter.

Cannot find the bank? The registered name may begin with another word. The complete list is one click away when you cannot find the bank here.

Switzerland and the SEPA area

Because Switzerland is part of the SEPA zone, a euro payment to a bank in Switzerland normally requires just an IBAN. Most banking apps no longer ask for the BIC in that case.

You will still need the BIC when sending payments in other currencies or transfers from countries outside SEPA. SEPA transfers usually arrive within one business day, and instant transfers in seconds where both banks support them. Fees are generally low as long as no currency is converted.

When does money sent to Switzerland arrive?

How fast money arrives in Switzerland depends on several factors: which currency you send, how many intermediary banks are involved, cut-off times and time zones. Bank holidays in either country can add extra days to the journey.

A growing number of banks are connected to SWIFT gpi. Every payment gets a unique transaction reference, the UETR, which the sending bank can use to trace it. Specialist transfer services often provide tracking online so you can follow the payment.