Swiss banks are not leaders on anything now... They are just expensive. I pay 10 swiss francs per month to have an account and card there. And they still want 5 more so I can make more than 10 transactions a month (which I want since I started paying contactless in shops). And there aren't really any good alternatives, any bank is like that.

And I pay 0 swiss francs for an account + card (you need more than 25k of assets, else its 5...But any product such as third pillar retirement funds count!) with unlimited transactions and cash-withdrawal at any ATM. You probably have to shop around.

The reason why banks are charging now for simple accounts, is that since we have negative interest rates (the lowest in the world), its actually damn difficult for banks to make a profit now with normal accounts since the traditional business model of the difference in interest rates is now actually reversed (the target rate is negative, yet on my account I have 0%...).

If I lived here and wasn't eligible for a student account as I am now, I might honestly consider just using one of the US accounts which allows for free ATM withdrawals anywhere. It seems absurd to have to pay a monthly fee just to have an account.

There do at least seem to be a few free (with no minimum balance) app-based checking/private accounts.

Switzerland has access to SEPA, I believe, as a member of the European Free Trade Association. I don't think it's widely accepted.

That just works with € transactions, and it's still not instant. But yeah every ebanking software offers SEPA transactions.