Frequently asked questions

• Simplicity: In developing the VIAC app, we have focused on making securities saving comprehensible to all investors. The key figures are reduced to the most important ones and explained in a simple language. The tedious journey to the bank is spared. Within three clicks you can retrieve all information. The VIAC App offers you the possibility to get an overview of your personal pension assets at any time and anywhere.

• Comfort: We want to relieve you of all annoying tasks as far as possible. It has never been so easy to save taxes and fees. With the App-based approach, you can open your 3rd pillar account at any time and place and deposit money instantly. The investment of the pension assets according to the chosen strategy is then automated. Our intelligent system also ensures that the interest and dividends received are reinvested, so that the compound interest effect is used as efficiently as possible. We also give you the greatest possible freedom when making a deposit – which is already possible from 1 CHF. This way you can deposit when and as much as you want, at no extra cost.

• Low fees: Fees are also always a yield guzzler. This is particularly pronounced in the case of long-term investments – including the third pillar. For this reason, we have focused on the lowest possible costs for our clients in the entire development of our system, as well as in the selection of the index investments used, without compromising on quality. Whether it’s software development, hosting or customer service – we rely on Swiss quality. Our offer proves that low costs are compatible with top service and quality.

• Broad diversification: Diversification refers to the distribution of invested capital across several asset classes (e.g. equities, real estate etc.) or within an asset class over several individual securities. Specific risks can be minimized through good diversification. If an investor would only bet on 2 shares and one of them would have a negative yield, this could already have a negative impact on the overall result. Our strategies always combine several asset classes. Each asset class is in turn made up of several broadly based indices, which we map with index funds and ETFs. For example, a single strategy consists of more than 2’800 individual securities – if a single security pays off negatively, this has in most cases hardly any influence.

• Autopilot for your Pillar 3a: VIAC takes care of all the tasks for you, you only have to pay in yourself. We automatically trigger the buy and sell orders, so that your pension assets are always within the chosen ranges. We take care of reinvestment of interest, dividends, payments and transfers. We optimize stamp duty, bid-ask spread and foreign currency exchange fees for you. Always with the goal of offering our customers the best product at the lowest cost.

• Sustainability: Our goal is to use resources as sparingly as possible. That’s why we rely on a 100% digital and almost paperless offer. With our strategies, you can choose an implementation that is specifically geared to sustainability. Our office space and the servers are also operated with green electricity.

VIAC’s service includes the following simplified services:

• We maintain a globally diversified portfolio for each investment strategy, selecting the best and most cost-effective index funds and ETFs.

• With our automated rebalancing mechanism, we monitor your portfolio on an ongoing basis and track the weightings of your investments to your target weighting on a monthly basis if necessary. In other words, if the weighting of an index investment has increased by more than 2% (e.g. due to price gains), the profit is realized and the weighting is reduced to the target weighting. On the other hand, if the weighting of an index investment has fallen by more than 2% (e.g. due to price losses), it is bought back at the lower price and the weighting is increased to the target weighting. We do not charge any additional costs for these transactions.

• As soon as you have made a deposit or one of the investments has paid a dividend, we invest this money in your investment strategy without your intervention and without any additional costs.

• In the VIAC App we will show you at any time the development of your pension assets and inform you about the remaining deposit capacity of the current tax period. This way you always have an overview of your pension assets.

As safe as any other bank or pension foundation. You pay every franc directly into the Terzo Pension Foundation or Vested Benefit Foundation of the WIR Bank. The Pension Foundations are independent and responsible for the secure, needs-oriented management of the pension assets of its clients. They have already been entrusted with more than CHF 3.5 billion in client assets.

If the Bank WIR finds itself in financial difficulties, it is the task of the Pension Foundations to take the necessary measures to protect the pension assets of its clients (e.g. this may result in a change of custodian bank). With the bankruptcy privilege, your account assets up to CHF 100’000 will be given preferential treatment in the event of bankruptcy of the account-holding bank. Securities are held at Credit Suisse or ZKB. Privileged assets end up in bankruptcy class 2. In addition, the custodian bank must hold domestic receivables or other assets located in Switzerland (usually mortgages) to the extent of 125% of its privileged assets. Securities (including our index funds) are regarded as special assets and do not fall into bankruptcy assets in the event of the custodian bank’s insolvency. More information can be found at: Esisuisse

No, the cash assets of all Pillar 3a and vested benefit foundations are only privileged in the event of the custodian bank’s bankruptcy. The privilege means that the assets are to be allocated to the second bankruptcy class. Your money, which is not invested in securities, is managed by WIR Bank, a purely Swiss and cooperative institution. With the bankruptcy privilege, cash assets of up to CHF 100’000 per client are given preferential treatment in the event of bankruptcy of the account-holding bank. Securities are held at Credit Suisse or ZKB. Privileged assets end up in bankruptcy class 2. In addition, the custodian bank must hold domestic receivables or other assets located in Switzerland (usually mortgages) to the extent of 125% of its privileged assets. Securities are regarded as special assets, are protected in the event of the custodian bank’s insolvency and are not included in the bank’s bankruptcy assets. More information can be found at: Esisuisse

It may happen that the VIAC App does not accept your fingerprint or FaceID anymore. For example, if you restore the app from a backup on a new smartphone. The reason for this is that the password is stored locally encrypted on your device when using the fingerprint or FaceID. In such cases you have two simple options:

Option 1: Under “Profile” in the top right menu first disable the feature, save and activate FaceID or Fingerprint again. If this does not help, please try option 2.

Option 2: Delete and reinstall the VIAC App from the App Store or Google Play. This will reset your settings to default and you will be able to login using your fingerprint or FaceID.

However, both options only work as long as your account is not already blocked. In such cases, it’s best to contact us by phone (0800 80 40 40) or chat.

Since the beginning of September 2023, the VIAC app is available in a new design and with additional features. With the new app, you now have even more control over your pension provision and can access it easily from anywhere. Not only can you manage your pillar 3a through the app, but also your vested benefits account, Life and mortgage. Furthermore, you can benefit from the exclusive VIAC Deals.

Why can I not update the VIAC app?

This may have to do with the age of your mobile phone and/or the operating system running on it. iPhone users must have at least the operating system iOS 14.0 or newer installed and Android users must use at least version 10 or newer on the mobile phone. If these requirements are not met, the VIAC app is not compatible with your mobile phone for security reasons, as security gaps are no longer closed on older operating systems. In rare cases, your storage may be full – but the app only requires about 60MB of storage space.

How can you use VIAC anyway?

You can log in via the web app in your browser. The new web app is “full responsive”, so it looks good on any screen size. You can also bookmark the app directly on your home screen. This works as follows:

iPhone:

1. in Safari, open the VIAC website and click on “Login”.
2. before you log in: Click on the “Share” icon at the bottom of the bar. Scroll down and select “Add to Home Screen”.
3. give your bookmark a personal name. This name will appear on your mobile phone under the app icon. The icon is created automatically and cannot be changed.
4. finish the process with “Add”. The bookmark will be created in a free space on your home screen. When you click on it, the login page of the VIAC web app will open.

Android:

1. in Chrome, open the VIAC website and click on “Login”.
2. before you log in: Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “add to home screen”
3. give your bookmark a personal name. This name will appear on your mobile phone under the app icon. The icon is created automatically and cannot be changed.
4. finish the process with “Add”. You will now see a preview. Click on “Add” again to save the bookmark to a free space. When you click on it, the login page of the VIAC web app will open.

Enjoy the new VIAC app!