EBICS with Banque Cantonale de Fribourg: your BCF transactions in your accounting every morning
Banque Cantonale de Fribourg offers EBICS access to its business customers, and YESbusiness connects to it directly: nobody between your bank and your accounting. Every morning, yesterday's statement of your BCF account arrives on its own and your entries are prepared for you. Here is how to activate it, what you get and what it does not do.
Banque Cantonale de Fribourg in a few words
Banque Cantonale de Fribourg is the cantonal bank of the bilingual canton of Fribourg, present in all of its districts and firmly rooted among Fribourg's SMEs, tradespeople and freelancers. EBICS access is requested from your adviser; the bank opens it on your business contract.
EBICS at BCF: what the bank publishes
What BCF says about its EBICS offer on its own pages. Terms can change: your advisor has the last word.
- BCF offers "EBICS for companies", aimed mainly at companies with a high volume of payments.
- You request it through your corporate client advisor, who sets up the contract with a Digital Banking specialist.
- Protocol versions 2.5 and 3.0 are supported.
- Access to EBICS is free; banking operations and account management stay at BCF's usual rates.
Sources: BCF's own pages, read on 16 October 2026: BCF – EBICS pour les entreprises · BCF – FAQ EBICS
Connecting BCF to YESbusiness: the five steps
Two steps depend on you, one on YESbusiness, two on Banque Cantonale de Fribourg. Allow a few minutes on your side and a few business days on the bank's.
- 1Ask Banque Cantonale de Fribourg for EBICS. Through your adviser or the corporate e-banking desk. The bank opens the access on your contract and gives you a customer number (Customer ID or Partner ID) and a user identifier (User ID).
- 2Pick BCF in YESbusiness and enter the two identifiers. YESbusiness generates the keys of your connection, registers them with Banque Cantonale de Fribourg's EBICS server and opens the initialization letter, which carries the fingerprints of your public keys.
- 3Print, sign and send the letter to Banque Cantonale de Fribourg. Your signature is what authorizes the bank to activate the access. The letter contains no secret: only the fingerprints the bank compares with what it received electronically.
- 4Banque Cantonale de Fribourg checks and activates the access. Usually within a few business days. On activation, YESbusiness fetches the bank's public keys, verifies their fingerprints and runs the first download.
- 5Your BCF accounts are connected. The bank sends the IBANs covered by the access; you link each one to a cash account. From there, every morning, yesterday's statement arrives and is booked with your rules.
Nobody between BCF and your accounting
YESbusiness carries its own EBICS client. It generates your keys, announces itself to Banque Cantonale de Fribourg's EBICS server, verifies the bank's keys and downloads your statements itself. Your data travels from BCF's server to YESbusiness's server, encrypted end to end, with no aggregation platform and no robot on your e-banking.
Your BCF e-banking username and password are never asked for. EBICS rests on keys generated for your connection and on a signed letter Banque Cantonale de Fribourg verifies.
What to know before signing the letter
- Read-only. YESbusiness reads your BCF statements; it sends no payment order. Your transfers continue to be made in Banque Cantonale de Fribourg's e-banking.
- Daily, not real time. The channel delivers the end-of-day statement (camt.053) of the previous business day. A movement from this morning appears tomorrow morning.
- Banque Cantonale de Fribourg opens the channel. EBICS is requested from the bank, not from YESbusiness. Most Swiss banks open it free of charge for business customers; a few charge for it. Ask your BCF adviser.
- A few days to activate. Between sending the signed letter and Banque Cantonale de Fribourg's activation, allow a few business days. In the meantime, the camt.053 file downloaded from BCF e-banking can be imported by hand.
Frequently asked questions about EBICS with BCF
Does Banque Cantonale de Fribourg offer EBICS?
Yes, to its business customers. It is a service the bank opens on your contract; ask your adviser or BCF's corporate e-banking desk.
How much does EBICS cost at BCF?
On the YESbusiness side, nothing beyond the subscription: the connection is included. On the bank side, EBICS is usually free in Switzerland; a few banks charge a setup fee or a flat rate. One call to your BCF adviser is enough to find out.
Do I have to give YESbusiness my BCF e-banking login?
Never. EBICS works with a dedicated access Banque Cantonale de Fribourg opens in your name and keys generated for your connection, not with your e-banking login.
Can I pay my BCF invoices from YESbusiness?
No. YESbusiness uses EBICS read-only: it fetches your statements, it sends no payment orders. Your transfers stay in Banque Cantonale de Fribourg's e-banking.
I have several accounts at BCF, or other banks?
One BCF EBICS connection can cover several accounts at the bank; each IBAN is linked to a cash account. Every other bank has its own EBICS connection, and a company can have as many as it has banks.
Other banks
YESbusiness is Swiss accounting, the EBICS connection to Banque Cantonale de Fribourg and VAT returns from CHF 12.90 per month. Two-week free trial.
Try YESbusiness with BCF