Numbered bank account
A numbered bank account is a type of bank account where the name of the account holder is kept secret, and they identify themselves to the bank by means of a code word known only by the account holder and a restricted number of bank employees, thus providing accountholders with a degree of bank privacy in their financial transactions. Numbered bank accounts are frequently associated in the public mind with a desire by the account holder to either minimize governmental scrutiny and taxation, perhaps to conceal an illegal or unethical origin of the money in the account or to avoid arbitrary government interference in the affairs of a political dissident. For this reason, numbered bank accounts are illegal in most banking jurisdictions, but are available (subject to heavy international regulations) in some Western European countries with a long tradition of specializing in international banking, such as Switzerland and Austria; the holder has to be fully identified if they want to utilize first security bank solutions incorporated into their banking structure, but there is no law that enforces the bank to fix the name of the holder in the title of the account.