Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss bank account holders have had little reason in the past to ask how exactly the deposit protection system work: the last bank failing was in 1991, a small savings bank in Thun. The system is in fact straightforward.
Each depositer is covered for CHF30,000 francs but under Swiss law, even for a joint account, the account is considered to be held by one “person.” James Nason, spokesperson for the Swiss Bankers Association in Basel, says this means that if two people share a joint account, they are insured for CHF30,000. If one person has two accounts, he or she is insured for CHF30,000.
Nason is quick to say there is no reason to suspect an imminent problem, however.
“As far as we know, Swiss banks are fulfilling their obligations and have enough capital.” Nason says his phone has not stopped ringing with journalists and other people wanting to make sure they’ve understood the Swiss depositer protection system. The system is managed by the banks themselves, with a total “kitty” of CHF4 billion in guarantees. Half of that money sits on the balance sheets of the banks, CHF2 billion earmarked “deposit protection” and the other half must be found by the country’s banks if one of them goes under and the CHF2 billion is not adequate to cover the guarantees.
The self-regulatory agreement is managed by Swiss Deposit Protection, an agency separate from the bankers’ association.
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 9 October 2008.
Filed under: Society
Tags: bank deposits, bank guarantees, Swiss banks
October 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
[...] page in English, aimed at the general public. For details during the global financial crisis about bank guarantees on deposits in Switzerland, see our GL article, 9 October 2008. Posted by :: Ellen Wallace on 12 [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Why have Llyods TSB not declared the massive amount of useless Bonds bought by them?
How many Bankers/Bank Officials are Directors/Shareholders in the Companies associated with the Banks generally? How many Lawyers/Accountants use the “Smart” company to become invisible beneficiaries of Companies? How many of these companies have transferred the business of the company abroad i.e. Delaware prior to going into Administration?How many of the Bankers are aware of the intention to set up virtual companies in London to draw in Investors for the Olympics – these companies to disappear within two year? Are they aware that most of the information held at Companies House, although, “Legalish” bears no resemblance to the facts? Lastly, had Company Directors been held responsible for their companies actions i.e.unable to hide behind the “Veil of Corporate Secrecy would we be in the position we now find ourselves?