A standing order is a 'push' payment: you, the account holder, decide the amount and frequency, and your bank executes it without further authorisation until you cancel it. Because the amount is fixed it is unsuitable for variable bills like electricity, but ideal for predictable obligations such as rent, child support or a monthly transfer to a savings or investment account.
Setting up a standing order takes a minute in any modern e-banking app: enter the beneficiary IBAN, the amount, the start date and the frequency. There is rarely any fee for domestic standing orders within Switzerland, Germany, France or Italy. For cross-border standing orders in EUR within SEPA, banks typically charge the same as a regular SEPA transfer (often zero).
A standing order is one of the most powerful behavioural tools in personal finance. Automating a transfer to a savings or investment account on payday — the 'pay yourself first' principle — removes the friction and willpower normally required to save. Setting a CHF 500 monthly standing order to an ETF brokerage compounds to roughly CHF 400,000 over 30 years at a 6% nominal return.
An employee earns CHF 6,500 net on the 25th. On the 26th, a standing order moves CHF 1,000 to a vested-benefits ETF account, on the 27th CHF 1,800 leaves for rent, and CHF 200 sweeps to her travel savings account on the same day. The remaining CHF 3,500 funds living expenses.