[iridium]

Anybody have any experience with, or know anything about, Swiss bank accounts?.

Yes

Is Swiss system still the gold standard for asset protection?

It depends what you mean by asset protection. Like in any country, banks can default (some have in the past), and you dont have FDIC insurance like in the US. But it is rather unlikely that any of the major Swiss banks ever default and that includes institutions like Credit Suisse or UBS but also some of the "private banking" players such as Pictet or Lombard Odier

What kind of rules do you have to follow?

The rules have become more and more strict in the past few years, but any foreigner can easily open a personal account with valid identification. You will have to come in person to open an account. They may want disclosure of where money is coming from. Cash deposits in excess of CHF 10,000 require that you sign a form stating the money is clean. (Notice that Switzerland is still and hopefully a cash based society, and moving sums like say 20k in cash does not raise eyebrows like it does elsewhere).

Notice that so called "numbered accounts" are a thing of the distant past... there is no such thing as your information IS on file.

Notice that opening a corporate account is much more difficult unless this is for a swiss based company. You will generally need to be introduced by a swiss lawyer or accounting firm.

What kind of fees?

Fees are extremely low, especially if you deal mostly in wires or cash. To give you an idea, a USD international wire costs around $7.
Issuance of credit cards is more expensive than that of the US.

Any kind of taxation by Swiss on interest, etc.?

None, and whether or not you declare your taxes is none of their business... Tax evasion (of other govs) is not considered a crime (but as someone mentioned earlier, while they do not report, they will talk to the IRS if the IRS seeks information)

BTW dont go there for the interest rates unless 1 or 2 % turns you on

Anything else of interest?

You should get multiple currency accounts, so you can easily trade in EUR USD or CHF without incurring exchange fees.

Internet banking is one of the best i've seen so far. Very secure and powerful.. the US banks' online banking is a joke when you look at what the Swiss banks are offering (logging into BOA is not much safer than loging into a porn site

If you are dealing w private banking, avoid giving your banker a power of attorney on the funds... they are not the best asset managers (who is

...or if you think there is a better country (in terms of asset protection) feel free to offer it up. Caymans?.

In places like the carribeans you are pretty much gambling unless you select intl institutions like Barclays, Citi or UBS... the local offerings are either high risk or very-high cost or both

Other than that, Luxembourg is know to be good although I'm not familiar w the specifics