Letztes Update: 14. June 2024
In November 2020, I presented FlowOne in more detail. This FlowBank offer is now called FlowBank Pro and is aimed more at professional traders. For beginners, the much clearer FlowBank app was launched at the end of February 2021. The fees are the same for both products. The tabular comparison with Swissquote can be found here. Briefly summarized: The custody fee and the currency exchange fee are interesting. Several prices for trading shares and ETFs were lowered in May 2021 and are now also attractive. But now let’s move on to my experience with FlowBank.
On June 13, 2024, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA opened bankruptcy proceedings against FlowBank SA. Bankruptcy serves to protect depositors. According to the current calculations, the privileged deposits can be repaid in full from the bank’s existing funds. In addition, according to FINMA, clients’ securities accounts will be segregated and refunded.
If you are looking for an alternative to FlowBank, you will find it in the comparison Swissquote vs Saxo: Find the best Swiss online broker.
Account opening
After entering the standard information such as name, address, employer and passport number, a video chat can be performed, or you can upload the passport and a document containing your address and take a 3D face scan. How close you have to get to the webcam and how exactly you have to turn your head remains hidden. After trying several times, however, it still worked. It takes about one to two days for the account to be verified and approved.
FlowBank app experience
The FlowBank app comes across much cleaner than the FlowBank Pro app (i.e. the former FlowOne app).
If you select a stock, a highly simplified chart appears. The display of when the stock exchange will open again is a success.
Furthermore, the most important key figures such as “Open” and “Close” rates are displayed. Speaking of language: A few translations are still adventurous to incomprehensible. Others are not translated at all, coming across in English or French. An example: “Your investments are down 0.47% Today”. Sometimes you are called by your first name, sometimes by your last name.
If you then click on “Buy”, the order type “Market” is preset, which I do not find optimal. If you switch to a “Limit” order, a short description of what the two price types actually mean is displayed. If I have now switched to “Limit”, however, I do not see the bid-ask prices anywhere. How should I enter a limit there? So again one step back, remember the price, select “Buy”, enter “Limit”… simple and “as intuitive as possible” is different.
At present, the purchased shares cannot yet be entered in the Swiss share register.
It is also a pity that not all transactions are displayed in the app. Dividend receipts? Wrong. Suddenly, the available cash was simply higher. Where the money comes from is not shown in the app.
Departure of the account management fee? Wrong. Suddenly, the amount was simply gone. Unfortunately, the app sometimes still looks like a beta version.
Recently, you can also load your deposit with a credit card. This money is then immediately available for trading.
Fractional Shares and Cryptocurrencies
In the new app FlowBank you can now trade fractional shares as announced. However, this is currently only possible with a total of ten American shares. Further US stocks are to be added on an ongoing basis. Fractions are tradable from CHF 5. That means you could buy 1/632 of an Amazon share.
You can invest in cryptocurrencies through ETFs, ETPs, ETNs and tracker certificates. Besides Bitcoin, ETPs can be traded on Ethereum, Ripple, Binance Coin, Polkadot and various baskets. Later, FlowBank plans to offer direct access to cryptocurrencies.
An ETP works similarly to an ETF: if bitcoin rises by 10%, the value of your bitcoin ETP also rises by 10%.
Learning center and blog
A learning center is designed to introduce beginners to investing. The most important message, according to Charles-Henry Monchau, CIO of FlowBank, is that investing is about investing, not speculating. However, the learning center is currently only available in English.
Advanced users will find Market Research and Market Insights in the English-language financial blog.
Live webinars in English, French and German are offered for all experience levels.
Next up is the launch of the FlowBank Card. You can then use it to store in-store or online.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, much of the FlowBank app currently still looks sketchy. But as already written in the review before: FlowBank is still very young.
In terms of fees, FlowBank is already right at the top. arrived at the very bottom. FlowBank currently offers the lowest fees for shares and ETFs of all Swiss brokers.
Since the launch, FlowBank has repeatedly screwed with the fees. I am curious to see where these will settle. And how the competition will react to it.
Transparency and disclaimer
I was not paid by anyone for this blog post, it reflects my subjective opinion.
If you open accounts or business relationships, order products or services through my links and codes, I may receive a commission for doing so. However, you will not suffer any disadvantages such as higher prices or the like. The terms and conditions of the respective providers apply. Affiliate links are marked with a *.
Investments are associated with risks which, in the worst case, can lead to the loss of the capital invested.
All publications, i.e. reports, presentations, notices as well as contributions to blogs on this website (“Publications”) are for information purposes only and do not constitute a trading recommendation with regard to the purchase or sale of securities. The publications merely reflect my opinion. Despite careful research, I do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the information contained in the publications.