The privacy advantage. Austrian bank secrecy laws protect your assets from unauthorized snoops, private investigators, contingency-fee seeking lawyers even government officials—from prying into your financial affairs. Indeed, the confidenti¬ality of Austrian bank accounts is protected by a law with the same legal status as the Austrian Constitution! Absent evidence that you have committed a serious crime, Austrian bank secrecy is virtually impenetrable. Compare this to the United States where even mar¬keting agencies regularly share your private financial information. In Austria, such con¬duct would be deemed criminal and could result in stiff fines or even imprisonment. more.

The banking advantage. Austria's "universal banks" combine the services of a bank and broker, a combination not common in Anglo-Saxon countries, especially the United States. Banks in Austria offer similar services as in neighboring Switzerland, but at a lower cost and historically, with a somewhat lower profile.

The asset protection advantage. If your goal is to protect assets from frivolous litigation or seizures, Austria has much to offer. In Austrian courts, the loser must pay the winner's legal bills, courts can't award punitive damages in civil disputes, and all relevant docu­ments must be translated into German by an official translator. And, there is no automatic recognition or enforcement of U.S. civil judgments. 

The euro advantage. Austria is part of the European Currency Union and uses the euro as its official currency, giving it unrivaled access to the markets of the other 12 members of the euro block, including trading giants Germany and France. Combine this with first-class Austrian banking services and you'll find unparalleled financing for investments through­out the EU and Central and Eastern Europe.

The freedom advantage. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom rates the Austrian economy as one of the freest in the world—18th out of 157 countries rated. In monetary policy, foreign investment policy, banking, wages and prices, and respect for property rights, Austria has very high ratings. Taxes and regulation remain high, although both have been eased in recent years. The cost of government, however, is largely born by Austrian residents—not by foreign investors.

The neutrality advantage. Austria's constitution guarantees permanent neutrality in in­ternational disputes. This makes Austria an unlikely target for terrorism and possible dis­ruption of its financial markets. In contrast, terrorist attacks in the United States on Sep­tember 11, 2001 forced closure of all U.S. financial markets for the next four days. De­spite a worldwide anti-terrorist crackdown since the September 11 tragedy, terrorism inci­dents have continued to increase. The United States and its allies remain much more vul­nerable to terrorist attacks and disruption of financial markets than neutral havens like Austria.

Safe financial haven. Many countries are in a much more precarious situation financially than many investors realize. Consumer, corporate and government debt levels are at record highs, and a recession, when it finally comes, is likely to be severe. Fortunately, in some countries, banks are run much more conservatively, and the risk of failure is lessened. For instance, in Austria, the banking system has historically been organized in sectors; e.g., banks owned as cooperative societies. Each bank in these sectors has agreements with other banks in that sector to come to one another's aid in the event of a failure of one bank. For this reason, along with strict regulation, there have been very few bank failures in Austria since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Protection from a falling U.S. dollar. Record deficits and a faltering U.S. economy have led to a sharp decline in the value of the dollar in recent years. Buying foreign currencies helps protect you from dollar devaluation, but most U.S. banks make it difficult to buy foreign currencies. It's a different story offshore. At an Austrian bank, you can invest in any freely traded currency, in many different forms—CDs, stocks, bonds, etc. Even if these currencies don't rise in value against the greenback, your portfolio will gain diversifi­cation.

Financial privacy. The United States has some of the world's laxest privacy laws. For a few dollars, you can perform a search on the Internet to locate your target's home ad­dress, work history, telephone records and even balances in U.S. securities and bank ac­counts. You can slow down this trade in your data, but you can't stop it, especially if it's the government doing the snooping under laws like the USA PATRIOT Act. And financial accounts are notoriously insecure, contributing to an explosion in identity theft. In con­trast, by taking advantage of bank secrecy laws in a country like Austria, you can avoid needless scrutiny of your private financial affairs. 

True Bank Protection. The proliferation of unauthorized charges and unresonable bank fees is a great reason to look at Austria for your banking needs. No more logging into your bank account just to find a rash of charges you did not make along with bank fees piled on top of bank fees. in Austria you can actually call your banker and get a real person to answer the phone. If you have any trouble that you cannot solve with the bank you may call us and we will assist you with contact.

Asset protection. Due to the proliferation of lawsuits in the United States—more than 50,000 per week—moving a portion of your wealth outside the United States is also impor­tant for asset protection. U.S. juries are notorious for awarding millions of dollars of dam­ages for actions that almost never lead to lawsuits in other countries. But outside the United States, you can find "wealth havens" such as Austria with legal procedures in place that are highly unfavorable to frivolous litigation. 

Protection against civil forfeiture. The risk of having the government seize your property may seem remote, but it shouldn't, if you own property in the United States. Under state and federal civil forfeiture laws, you don't have to be convicted or even accused of a crime to lose your property. By contrast, in Austria, forfeiture of your property is possible only if it can be proven it was wrongly acquired through criminal activity, and in conjunc­tion with an actual criminal proceeding. Those are important safeguards lacking in the United States.

Protection from corruption and crime. In many parts of Asia, South America and Af­rica, residents must deal with a corrupt legal system. Corruption can easily lead to a situa­tion where criminal gangs infiltrate the banking system and the tax administration. Suc­cessful entrepreneurs in such countries avoid the banking system to prevent shakedowns, thefts and even kidnappings. Instead, they maintain the bulk of their assets offshore in a stable country like Austria with a trusted legal system where privacy is taken seriously.

Buy or Sell Any Security in the World. it's perfectly legal for a person to purchase any security in the world—stocks, bonds, funds, etc. And your Austrian bank account provides an ideal way to enter the world of offshore securities trading.
Under Austrian law, non-residents may purchase any Austrian or foreign security (Wert-papier) traded in Vienna or at any other stock exchange (Börse) in the world—stocks, bonds, war¬rants, derivatives, etc. The purchase price, less applicable commissions, is debited from your bank account and credited to a custodial securities account (Wertpapierdepot) maintained by the bank.
Minimum purchases for securities are low at most Austrian banks, in some cases €1,000 or less. As with domestic securities accounts, you may issue limit order instructions to buy only at a certain price or better; limit sell orders to sell at a certain price or above; or stop-loss orders to sell whenever the market price drops below a certain level.

Austrian Banks are Safe. Austrian banks are strictly regulated. All banks are required to have an internal audit de-partment responsible for monitoring account activity, hunting for errors and mistakes, and insuring compliance with codes of conduct. Each bank must also hire external auditors for an annual review of the bank's compliance with Austrian banking laws, commercial laws, and accounting standards. They check the balance sheets, the profit statements and report results to banking regulators, and insure compliance with all relevant laws.

Investments in an Austrian bank account are also covered by a deposit guarantee scheme. Per depositor, deposits are guaranteed up to €20,000 in the event of bankruptcy, receivership, or discontinuation of payments.

Austrian bank are tax-free. Most non-Austrian investments made by non-residents through an Austrian bank are tax-free. Austrian law defines “non-residents” as natural persons with permanent or habitual residence outside Austria and who do not stay in Austria for continuous periods of more than three months. Legal entities whose registered office or place of management is outside Austria are also consid­ered non-resident.

Private Banking. European Financial Services can arrange for a wide range of Private banking services in Austria and switzerland. We can open accounts with a large swiss banking group located in vienna which has private banking, investment banking, and asset management operations in Austria, the Cayman Islands, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Spain, in addition to several offices in Switzerland. A private banking representative office is open in Vancouver, Canada. The group has no operations in the United States except for an asset management office in New York.