How to change your depot successfully

Anyone who wants to move their shares or funds to a new securities account must submit a special order to their bank. There are a few rules to follow.

Changing the bank for their own securities presents many consumers with a choice: Should the securities be sold in the old depot and then bought back in the new depot? Or does it make more sense to transfer the shares, funds or bonds?

Many fund savers open a new account because the product range and, above all, the costs of buying and selling from another provider seem cheaper to them. In addition to the costs for the depot itself, they often have to pay too high a fee for transactions with the old depot.

Onvista Bank customers have to move

Some “custody moves” are not voluntary at all, namely when the previous bank discontinues its services. Customers of the Commerzbank subsidiary Onvista-Bank, for example, will have to deal with moving their securities in the coming months because the bank will cease business at the end of 2025. The portfolio components then have to move to a new bank.

Due to IT problems, some Postbank customers have temporarily had no access to their securities account in recent months. Deutsche Bank took over Postbank and is converting its IT systems. A number of Postbank customers may have taken this as an opportunity to change their accounts and securities accounts.

In order for such a move to work, a new depot must first be opened while the old depot still exists. Customers should then ask themselves a few questions, such as whether all securities can be transferred to the new depot and what conditions exist with the new provider.

Part of the deposit can also be transferred

The securities are then moved via a depository transfer. This is done by the new bank, which then requests the papers from the old depot. The order is initiated using a form. Most banks also offer the service online.

A portfolio transfer does not have to include the entire stock or fund portfolio, explains Ralph Wefer from the consumer portal Verivox: “I can decide whether I transfer all the securities in the old portfolio to the new one or whether I leave some of them there. If I transfer all the securities to the new one, transfer the new depot, then I can directly order the depot to be closed afterwards.”

Fund fragments cannot move

So-called “fragments” of funds cannot be transferred. Such fragments arise when you always save a certain amount, i.e. around 100 euros per month, into a fund in a fund savings plan. For example, if you have accumulated 50.25 shares in your old portfolio, you can only have the entire 50 shares transferred. The fragments remain in the old depot and may have to be sold.

Before the transfer, you should take a small inventory of the securities in the old portfolio. The number of units, purchase times and purchase prices of the shares or funds should be noted. After the securities account has been transferred, this data should be compared: “This is so important because later, when I want to sell the securities, the taxes will be calculated accordingly,” says expert Wefer, “we will then see how high the profit is , and I only have to pay tax on the winnings.”

No securities can be sold during the securities account transfer. Investors cannot react to price changes on the stock market, for example, in this phase. This makes it all the more important that the transfer takes place as quickly as possible.

The move can take three weeks

There is a legal basis for this and, for two years now, a requirement from the financial regulator BaFin, as Christian-Albrecht Kurdum, who is a lawyer specializing in capital market law, explains: “On the one hand, the securities account transfer is regulated by Section 69 of the Securities Trading Act. It states that such a financial service To this end, BaFin has specified that the securities account transfer must be fully completed within three weeks at the latest.

If this is not the case, the bank is obliged to inform the customer of possible delays within five banking days and to justify them. If this does not happen either, bank customers can proceed to enforce their rights. This includes, for example, reporting the delays to the financial supervisory authority, which in turn then issues a warning to the bank concerned after some time.

Claims for damages possible

If this takes too long for you, for example because you want to dispose of your securities in the new depot more quickly, you can also take legal action. Claims for damages can even be asserted against the bank that is responsible for the delay, according to lawyer Kurdum: “If there is a culpable breach of duty there, resulting in damage to the customer, the bank is liable for damages. The more precise the documentation of the process, The higher the probability that your concerns will be successful, if necessary in court.”

However, only very few of those affected will have to go that far. As a rule, the transferred securities arrive in the new depot within the regulated period. There they can then continue to ensure an increase in assets for savers.