title: Switzerland — Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access | World Payments Monitor canonical: https://payments.gi/jurisdictions/switzerland/w12/ publisher: Asymmetric Intelligence ### W12 Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access 1 gap Confirmed confirmed 2026-06-27 Settlement access is via the SNB-supervised SIC system: participants (primarily Swiss banks and eligible financial market participants) maintain SIC accounts funded from sight-deposit/reserve accounts at the SNB, with payments settled only when sufficiently covered. Cross-border euro correspondent access runs through euroSIC/SECB into TARGET. FinTech-licensed and (proposed) payment institutions may hold sight deposits at a bank, another payment institution or, where allowed, the SNB. De-risking remains a structural pressure, with FATF flagging correspondent-banking decline and unintended financial exclusion; Swiss PSPs frequently decline crypto/high-risk merchants. Wholesale-CBDC access in Project Helvetia is restricted to RTGS-participating banks/financial institutions. Open gap — wpm-int-4 No correspondent-banking or access event for CH was located this cycle._no under-indexing note recorded_ Standing sub-brief · as of 27 June 2026 212 words · last cycle 2026-06-27 #### Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access The analytical spine of this module is the bank versus non-bank access asymmetry. Settlement access runs via the SNB-supervised SIC system: participants — primarily Swiss banks and eligible financial-market participants — maintain SIC accounts funded from sight-deposit/reserve accounts at the SNB, with payments settled only when sufficiently covered. Cross-border euro correspondent access runs through euroSIC/SECB into TARGET. FinTech-licensed and proposed payment institutions may hold sight deposits at a bank, another PI or, where allowed, the SNB, while wholesale-CBDC access in Project Helvetia is restricted to RTGS-participating banks and financial institutions. Direct SIC/SNB settlement access is therefore largely bank-gated; non-bank PIs reach central bank money only indirectly — a structural asymmetry the FinIA reform partly addresses. The access picture is compounded by de-risking. The FATF notes that AML/CFT implementation can lead to de-risking and unintended financial exclusion, including the decline of correspondent-banking relationships, and urges countries to align financial-inclusion and AML/CFT policies. In Switzerland, PSPs frequently decline crypto and high-risk merchants, reinforcing a de-risking pressure that overlaps the FIM illicit-finance surface and is routed via cross-monitor flags. #### Outlook The bank-gated access asymmetry is structural; the FinIA reform partly narrows non-bank access to central bank money, while de-risking and correspondent-banking decline remain recurring pressures on non-bank and crypto firms. no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief ** Sources and findings (4)** 1. T3 [https://www.moneyland.ch/en/six-interbank-clearing-definition](https://www.moneyland.ch/en/six-interbank-clearing-definition) retrieved 2026-06-27 2. T1 [https://www.snb.ch/en/the-snb/mandates-goals/payment-transactions/swiss-interbank-clearing](https://www.snb.ch/en/the-snb/mandates-goals/payment-transactions/swiss-interbank-clearing) retrieved 2026-06-27 3. T2 [https://www.riskcompliance.biz/news/project-helvetia-iii-the-swiss-national-banks-pilot-for-wholesale-cbdc/](https://www.riskcompliance.biz/news/project-helvetia-iii-the-swiss-national-banks-pilot-for-wholesale-cbdc/) retrieved 2026-06-27 4. T1 [https://www.fatf-gafi.org/content/dam/fatf-gafi/guidance/Guidance-Financial-Inclusion%20-Anti-Money-Laundering-Terrorist-Financing-Measures.pdf.coredownload.pdf](https://www.fatf-gafi.org/content/dam/fatf-gafi/guidance/Guidance-Financial-Inclusion%20-Anti-Money-Laundering-Terrorist-Financing-Measures.pdf.coredownload.pdf) retrieved 2026-06-27