Choosing a private banker in Chur and Graubünden: languages, meetings and a first conversation

Chur, capital of a trilingual canton

According to the City of Chur, the city had 41,713 inhabitants on 31 December 2025, of whom 10,192 were foreign nationals. The capital of Graubünden lists tourism, education, information technology and water among its economic clusters, and states that it is developing into the health centre of south-eastern Switzerland.

German, Romansh and Italian are the official languages of the canton of Graubünden, with equal status, and municipalities determine their official languages within their powers and in cooperation with the canton (art. 3 of the cantonal constitution). English is not one of them. This rule concerns the canton and its municipalities; it does not set the language in which a bank looks after its clients. The language of your banking relationship is agreed with the institution and with your banker.

Tourism carries considerable weight in the canton's economy. According to a study by EBP Schweiz for the cantonal Office for the Economy and Tourism, in 2022, counting direct and indirect effects, it accounted for almost a third of cantonal employment (31.3%) and just over a quarter of gross value added (26.5%). That weight shows up in several situations in which you may look for a private banker from Chur: running or handing over a family business, owning a second home in a resort, or holding wealth that is largely property.

This page is for people who live in Switzerland, in Chur, elsewhere in Graubünden or in another canton with a tie to Graubünden, such as a second home, and for people preparing to move there, who are thinking of entrusting substantial financial assets to a private banker. We wrote it primarily for available financial assets of more than one million Swiss francs. This figure is a guide, not an entry requirement: each institution sets its own criteria for taking on new clients. For an overview of the selection criteria, see our page on Swiss private banks.

Institutions with an office in Chur

The list below shows, in alphabetical order, the institutions in our database for which we have verified an office serving private clients in Chur; at the date of our last check there are three, a cantonal bank, a private bank and a universal bank. Being an AlpineCompare partner changes neither the order of the list nor whether an institution appears in it.

This list does not cover every institution active in Chur: it covers those in our database whose presence in Chur is published by the institution itself. The information published on institutions is indicative and must be confirmed with the institution concerned.

What the Chur offices show

The three institutions in the list do not present themselves in the same way. The canton's own cantonal bank, Graubündner Kantonalbank, states that it has over 40 sites across the canton, with its head office in Chur, the city the list links it to; its Private Banking page lists 22 locations in Graubünden, including Chur, Davos Platz, Ilanz, Klosters, Poschiavo, Roveredo, Scuol and St. Moritz. The page of the UBS branch on Poststrasse lists wealth management among the services offered, alongside services for private clients and for companies. Vontobel's list of addresses gives an address for Bank Vontobel AG on Bahnhofplatz without detailing the services of that office. We accessed the UBS and Vontobel pages on 20 October 2026 and the cantonal bank's pages on 21 October 2026.

A branch page or a list of addresses does not describe every service an institution offers, and a service that is not mentioned is not necessarily unavailable. In each case, ask who would look after your wealth day to day, from which office, and where your meetings would take place.

Beyond Chur: Zurich and the Engadine

For a wider choice, our page on private banks in Zurich lists the institutions whose Zurich office we have verified, including UBS and Vontobel, which are present in Chur.

Elsewhere in the canton, our database records four institutions in St. Moritz, listed here in alphabetical order: the representative office of CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique; EFG, which lists St. Moritz among its Swiss locations in its 2025 annual report; Graubündner Kantonalbank, whose Private Banking page names St. Moritz; Julius Bär, whose 2026 half-year report shows St. Moritz among its locations. In Davos, our database records Graubündner Kantonalbank. Ask each institution which services are offered on site and which are provided from another office. For the other valleys and resorts, the cantonal bank's Private Banking page names further locations, which our database does not list one by one; we have not verified other offices of the institutions in our database in Graubünden.

What matters when choosing a banker in Graubünden

Here are the criteria to look at, and the question that lets you check each one in a first conversation.

If you live in the Engadine, the Surselva, the Prättigau or another valley, raise the question of where you will meet early on. If you split your year between your home and a second home in Graubünden, say so in the first conversation.

These criteria match the questions of the AlpineCompare simulator: your project, the amount involved, your canton, your language and what you expect from your banker.

Situations in Graubünden, and what to clarify

The examples below are for illustration: they do not describe real clients and do not call for a standard answer. They show which points to clarify with a private banker depending on your situation.

Whether to withdraw pension capital is a separate decision, taken before the payout, with a pension specialist. Graubünden tax questions, for example on wealth, property or inheritance, also belong with specialists: ask the institution whether it handles them with its own teams or works with your fiduciary or tax adviser.

Different types of institution

In Chur, the list includes a cantonal bank, a private bank and a universal bank; a wealth management relationship can also be held with an independent asset manager. What distinguishes these models is explained on our page on types of institution and selection criteria.

If you are considering an independent asset manager, you can check that it appears on the list, published by FINMA, of portfolio managers licensed by FINMA and monitored by a supervisory organisation.

Preparing your first conversation

Before a first meeting, a few points prepared in advance make the conversation more useful:

• the amount you are thinking of entrusting and what it consists of: cash, securities already invested, sale proceeds;
• a list of your properties, in Graubünden and elsewhere, kept separate from your financial assets;
• if you run a company, a clear view of what belongs to the company and what belongs to you personally;
• your timetable, for example the date on which funds will become available;
• your residence permit and the date you arrived, if you have recently moved to Switzerland;
• the contact details of your other advisers: fiduciary, notary, tax adviser;
• the language you wish to use, spoken and written, and how you prefer to meet: in person, remotely or both.

Then note each banker's answers on the same points: you can compare several proposals on a common basis.

How AlpineCompare puts you in touch from Chur

AlpineCompare is an introduction service and has no office in Chur or elsewhere in Graubünden. The simulator asks you about your project, the amount involved, your canton of residence, your language and what you expect from your banker. Once your phone number is verified, you obtain a selection of private bankers from our partner institutions, with the option to be put in touch with one of them or to ask to be called back; nothing is passed to any partner until you have confirmed one of these two requests.

For each banker, the selection shows their institution, city and languages, so you can see whether a banker is based in Chur, in Zurich or in another city, and whether they list English among their languages. If you send them a request, that banker and their institution may contact you; the arrangements for a meeting, in person or remote, are then agreed with them. A banker's direct contact details, where the banker provides them, are shown only after you have confirmed the introduction to that banker or asked that banker to call you back: this confirmation is your agreement to your request being passed to that banker and their institution, which receive it at that moment; AlpineCompare records this agreement and may rely on it with the institution to establish that the relationship arose through its introduction.

• AlpineCompare is paid by the partner institution, under a business-introduction agreement, when a client it introduced signs a contract with that institution; the service is free for you.
• Only private bankers of partners can be presented to you; institutions without a partnership are described on the site in the same way as the others.
• Remuneration plays no part in the selection of the profiles shown or in their order.
• The selection depends on the partner bankers whose profile matches your request; it may include bankers based in other cities.