Home/Bank Intelligence/Switzerland/BCV
BCVB
BCV review

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

Three stars: a clean ten-year record, protected deposits and a desk for external managers.

Booking centreSwitzerland
RegulatorFINMA
Legal formLicence holder
GroupBCV Group
Founded1845
Websitebcv.ch
Rate this bankCompare
PPLI.com
Private Bank Rating
3 out of 5 stars
Editorial assessment on UHNW criteria
Reviewed 6 November 2026 · Q4 2026 edition
Updated every quarter
Rating signed byNoam CohenEditor, Bank Intelligence
About the rating
3 out of 5, Q4 2026 edition
price level of published fees
1matter on the record, 2015
Not publishedminimum relationship
The editor's opinion

Why BCV has three stars

BCV earns three stars. No final adverse finding against this licence holder in ten years of regulatory and court records. The file does not yet show the custody terms and the services offered here. These points carry no weight until they are documented.

Noam Cohen, Editor, Bank IntelligenceReviewed 6 November 2026, Q4 2026 edition. The rating weighs the public record together with what clients and their advisers tell us in confidence; retail products, branches and apps play no part.

Where BCV stands out

  • No final adverse finding against this licence holder in ten years of regulatory and court records.
  • Custody assets are protected by statute in the booking centre, with conditions a family should read.
  • Deposits are covered by a statutory protection scheme.
  • A dedicated desk serves external asset managers and family offices.
  • Most fees are published.

What to weigh

  • The custody agreement is not public, so its terms could not be reviewed.
  • The bank does not publish which services this booking centre offers.
  • The policy on payments to and from third parties is not published.

The rating expresses the opinion of PPLI.com on the date shown. It is not a statement of fact about the bank, not a credit rating, not a forecast of failure and not investment advice.

The record

Regulatory and legal record

What regulators, prosecutors and courts have decided, recorded against the legal entity they named, with the status, the amounts as published and a link to the original document. Claims and investigations still under way are marked as open.

201523 December 2015

Non-prosecution agreement under the Swiss Bank Program, US-related accounts

BCV entered a Swiss Bank Program non-prosecution agreement covering about 2,088 US-related accounts (declared and undeclared) with about USD 1.3 billion in total assets and paid a penalty of USD 41.677 million. Event date from the US Department of Justice program table.

BC Vaudoise will pay a penalty of $41.677 million.

Standard Swiss Bank Program cooperation obligations.

US Department of Justice (Swiss Bank Program, Category 2)Settlement without admissionPenalty USD 41.7 millionPrimary source
Clients and standing

Client experience and financial standing

What clients meet at BCV, read from complaint registers, ombudsman decisions and court records, independent reporting and what clients and their advisers tell PPLI.com in confidence. Announcements by the bank, awards and marketing material are left out.

UHNW client ratings

2.8 out of 5, based on 4 client ratings for this booking centre.

What clients report

The Swiss Banking Ombudsman publishes no figures by bank, so no complaints register shows numbers for Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. Trustpilot's profile for the bank, which it has not claimed, scores 1.3 out of 5 from 61 reviews and covers the bank as a whole, not its private banking alone.

Worth raising with the bank

  • Ask what share of the bank's lending is secured on Swiss real estate, given that Moody's cited that concentration when it affirmed the Aa2 rating in September 2026.

Financial standing

Credit ratings published by the agencies, dated by the latest agency or bank document that confirms them
AgencyRatingOutlookAs ofRated company
S&PAAStableAugust 2026Banque Cantonale Vaudoise
Moody'sAa2 (deposits)StableSeptember 2026Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

In the press

  • Allnews (AWP agency)

    Moody's confirme la note Aa2 de la BCV

    Moody's affirmed the bank's Aa2 deposit ratings with a stable outlook, citing solvency, profitability and liquidity, and flagged the concentration of its lending in Swiss real estate.

What it costs

What BCV charges, compared

BCV publishes its fees. The figures below are its list prices, read on 6 November 2026 from the document linked at the foot of this section. To compare banks fairly we put every published fee in US dollars at the same indicative rates and apply it to the same reference amounts, then rate each fee against the average of the other banks that publish it. Five stars is the lowest fee, one star the highest. Terms a family actually negotiates are often different, and the bank can change its schedule at any time.

Price level of the published fees8 fees compared with the other banks that publish them
FeeBCVOther banksAgainst the others
Custody and safekeepingeffective rate on USD 25 million0.20% a year0.24% at USD 10m, 0.17% at USD 50m; stated as a maximum Source0.30% a yearaverage of 38 other banksamong the lowest
Advisory mandateeffective rate on USD 12.5 million0.17% a year0.17% at USD 10m, 0.15% at USD 50m; stated as a maximum Source0.97% a yearaverage of 21 other banksamong the lowest
Equity tradecommission on a USD 250,000 trade, major exchange0.80%stated as a maximum Source0.80%average of 47 other banksaround the average
Bond tradecommission on a USD 500,000 trade0.40%stated as a maximum Source0.96%average of 42 other banksamong the lowest
Third party fund subscriptionfee on a USD 250,000 subscription1.75%stated as a maximum Source1.37%average of 42 other banksabove the average
Currency conversionmargin on a USD 1 million spot conversion1.28%stated as a maximum Source0.70%average of 30 other banksamong the most expensive
Minimum annual feeper year, or fee below the asset thresholdUSD 60 a yearCHF 48 per year SourceUSD 4,450 a yearaverage of 38 other banksamong the lowest
Outgoing international transferper transfer, standardUSD 8CHF 6 SourceRetail schedule, shown as published and not compared with private banking terms
Transfer of securities to another bankper positionUSD 125CHF 100 SourceUSD 126average of 38 other banksaround the average

Not in the published schedule: discretionary mandate, account maintenance, closing the account, lombard loan margin.

Sources.

  1. Costs and fees associated with financial instruments and other services. For clients affected by the Swiss…, October 2026 (print code 44-014e/26.10), read on 6 November 2026
  2. Tarifs pour la clientèle privée, valables dès le 1er juillet 2026 (code 42-558/26.07) (FR), read on 6 November 2026. General private-client (retail) tariff, used only for payment fees.

How the comparison works: USD 25 million booked with the bank: half under a discretionary balanced mandate, half in custody with advice; 24 equity trades of USD 250,000 and 8 bond trades of USD 500,000 a year; 6 currency conversions of USD 1 million; 24 outgoing international transfers. Tiered fees are applied to those amounts tranche by tranche, stated minimums are applied, and amounts are converted at indicative rates of 2026-11-06. Read how we compare fees.

The bank at a glance

Identity, protection and services

Legal identity

Legal nameBanque Cantonale Vaudoise
LEIK1MOBB3OPSBBQO554R76
LicenceBank  Source
RegulatorFINMA
Legal formLicence holder
OwnerCanton of Vaud (majority shareholder, percentage)  Source

Ownership

Group parentBanque Cantonale Vaudoise (listed, SIX)  Source
ControlCanton of Vaud, 67%; state owned  Source (30 June 2026)

Ownership is shown as published, with its date. It describes who owns the bank; it does not, by itself, suggest any wrongdoing by the bank or its owners.

Financial strength, as reported

Credit ratingsS&P AA; Moody's Aa2 (deposits)
CET1 ratio18.0% (31 Dec 2025)
Total assetsCHF 61.6 billion (31 Dec 2025)
Shareholders' equityCHF 4.0 billion (31 Dec 2025)
Assets under managementCHF 134.1 billion (31 Dec 2025)
Net profitCHF 430 million (31 Dec 2025)
Employees2,085 (31 Dec 2025)
Founded1845

Figures for Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV Group). Sources: BCV Group 2025 results press release; S&P report on BCV, 21 Jan 2026; BCV investor relations overview.

Services published for this booking unit

Private clients
Discretionary management
Advisory mandates
Custody only (execution and safekeeping)
Lombard lending
Mortgage lending
Multi currency accounts
Trust and fiduciary services
Family office services
Wealth planning
Consolidated reporting
External asset manager desk

Offered at this booking centreOffered by the group, not confirmed hereNot located, which does not mean unavailable
Checked on the bank's own pages, 2 November 2026.

Access and costs

Minimum relationshipNot published
US personsNot published
Fee schedulePublished, October 2026 (print code 44-014e/26.10)  Source  Compared below
Third party paymentsNot published
Transfer out termsNot published

Protection of client assets

Deposit protectionAll banks with a Swiss office must be members of esisuisse: privileged deposits are protected up to CHF 100,000 per client per bank, including non-resident clients and foreign currency deposits, within a system cap.
Custody lawSwiss Banking Act art. 37d: custody assets held for clients are separated from the bankrupt bank's estate and handed over to the clients, with privileged deposits protected under arts. 37a and 37h.
Custody termsNot published

Before opening an account

  • Custody agreement. The applicable legal framework is set out above. Ask for the agreement that would govern your account and check how securities are titled, whether any sub-custodian is used, and when the bank may take a lien.
  • Reporting to the family office. The bank lists a desk for external asset managers. Ask for a sample statement or data export and confirm whether it includes positions, transactions, accrued income and all currencies held.
  • Exit costs. The fee comparison shows USD 125 per position for a securities transfer. Ask what rate would apply to your mandate and whether the receiving bank or a sub-custodian would charge separately. See published fees.
Your experience

Rate BCV

If you bank with BCV or advise clients who do, your experience forms part of its PPLI.com rating. Every response is read by the editor and treated in strict confidence.

Select a rating

Our commitment to confidentiality

Your name, email and telephone number are seen only by the PPLI.com editor. They are never published, never passed to BCV or any other bank, and never used for marketing. We may contact you once to clarify your assessment. Once verified by our editors, your assessment can lead to a disclosed adjustment of this bank's PPLI.com rating. It is never published with your name.

Sources

All 15 documents cited on this page, by subject.

Regulatory and legal record

  1. US Department of Justice (Swiss Bank Program, Category 2): Non-prosecution agreement under the Swiss Bank Program, US-related accounts, 23 December 2015justice.gov

Client experience and press

  1. Allnews (AWP agency): Moody's confirme la note Aa2 de la BCV, 29 September 2026allnews.ch

Fees

  1. BCV: 44 014e Brochure LSFin Tarifs des services financiers (PDF)bcv.ch · Fees
  2. BCV: 42 558 Brochure Tarifs web (PDF)bcv.ch · Fees

Identity, ownership, finances and services

  1. FINMA: Bewilligungstraeger (PDF)finma.ch · Licence
  2. BCV: La bcvbcv.ch · Owner
  3. BCV: Who We Are (PDF)bcv.ch · Group parent
  4. BCV Group 2025 results press releasebcv.ch · Financial strength
  5. BCV: S&P report on BCV, 21 Jan 2026bcv.ch · Financial strength
  6. BCV investor relations overviewbcv.ch · Financial strength
  7. BCV: Private bankingbcv.ch · Services
  8. Bcv start immobcv.ch · Services
  9. BCV: Estate planningbcv.ch · Services
  10. BCV: Independent asset managersbcv.ch · Services

The bank

  1. BCV, websitebcv.ch

For BCV

Before we publish a significant negative finding that is not already public, we give the bank the facts and time to comment, on the same timetable for every bank. Decisions of regulators and courts are shown as they were published. Corrections we verify are published with the date of the change. Write to [email protected] quoting reference BK-CH-BCV-DA9D48.

Reviewing this file with us

Families and their advisers read this file before they open an account. It can only be as complete as the documents we can find, and much of what sets a private bank apart, from its custody terms to the way a client team works, is rarely published.

If you represent BCV, one of our Bank Intelligence analysts can go through the file with you: correct anything that is out of date, add terms and documents that are not yet public, and set out what has improved since our last edition. The review is a paid engagement for the analyst's time and research.

The rating itself stays with our editor and follows what the documents show, so we cannot promise a particular result. When a review changes the file, this page notes that the bank took part, with the date and what was added.

Speak to an analyst

About this file

Researched by the PPLI.com research desk from the public sources listed. The rating is our editorial opinion; read how we rate.

Important information. Editorial opinion of PPLI.com on the date shown, based on public information, client experience and editorial judgment. Not a statement of fact, a credit rating or investment, legal, tax or financial advice; verify with the bank and your own advisers before acting. No liability is accepted for reliance on this content. Bank names and logos are used for identification only. Ratings are updated every quarter. This is the Q4 2026 edition, and a rating can change between editions if something material happens. Full disclaimer
Rating signed by Noam Cohen, Editor, Bank IntelligenceReviewed 6 November 2026Methodology 2.4Reference BK-CH-BCV-DA9D48
Private consultation →
Step 1 of 2

Tell us about yourself

Read our Privacy Policy before submitting. Share only the information needed to describe your question; do not include medical records or account credentials.

Continue →
✦Research assistant
✦PPLI.comResearch assistant
Explore PPLI questions and suitability factors
Ask a general question about PPLI, or explore the factors that affect suitability. Treat the answer as a starting point and check the linked sources.
Use the research with your own tax, legal and insurance advisers.
Preparing an answer
AI assistant. Educational information only. It does not determine eligibility or provide personal tax, legal, investment or insurance advice.