Cantonal bank

The cantonal banks (German: Kantonalbank, French: banque cantonale, Italian: banca cantonale) are 24 Swiss government-owned commercial banks. Most of them were founded between 1834 and 1916, although the Banque cantonale du Jura was founded in 1979 – due to the 1978 separation of Jura from the Canton of Berne. 21 are provided by the canton in which they are based with a guarantee for the assets held there.

Logo of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks.

Description

Traditionally, cantonal banks are especially strong in savings and mortgage products.[1] Currently they are in the process of being partially privatized. The cantonal banks are organised and regulated by the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, with its office in Basel.

As a group, the cantonal banks account for about 30% of the banking sector in Switzerland, with a network of over 800 branches and 16 000 employees in Switzerland. In 2021 consolidated total assets of all cantonal banks accounted around 750 bln CHF, which is comparable with those of the "Big Banks": UBS and Credit Suisse.[1] Some cantonal banks offer 100% deposit insurance to their clients,[2] whereas Swiss-domiciled Banks are insured the maximum of 100,000 CHF via the esisuisse deposit insurance scheme.[3]

There are 24 cantonal banks, one in each canton of the country, except for the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, which sold its bank to banking rival UBS, and Solothurn, which privatized its bank in 1995 after a scandal. Each bank uses a distinctive motif as the logo, with a cantonal colour on white used as the colours of the bank, e.g. light blue for Zürcher Kantonalbank (Zurich Cantonal Bank). Despite appearances, cantonal banks are not small private banks: in fact two of them, the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Banque cantonale vaudoise, are the third and fourth biggest banks in Switzerland (after UBS and Credit Suisse).

List of cantonal banks

The list of cantonal banks with balance sheet and income statement information from December 2021.[4]

Cantonal bank Canton Est. Assets

(CHF billions)

 Consolidated profit

(CHF million)

Zürcher Kantonalbank Zürich 1870 192.1 942.4
Banque cantonale vaudoise Vaud 1845 55.9 378.7
gauche Basler Kantonalbank Basel-Stadt 1899 53.5 121
St. Galler Kantonalbank St. Gallen 1915 39.6 181
gauche Berner Kantonalbank | Banque Cantonale Bernoise Bern 1834 39 155
Luzerner Kantonalbank Lucerne 1850 52.9 221
Aargauische Kantonalbank Aargau 1913 34.3 171
Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank Basel-Stadt 1864 32.9 141
Thurgauer Kantonalbank Thurgau 1871 30.1 146
Graubündner Kantonalbank Grisons 1870 32.8 203
Banque cantonale de Genève Geneva 1861 28.3 125
Schwyzer Kantonalbank Schwyz 1890 22.1 73
Zuger Kantonalbank Zug 1892 18.1 75.3
Banque cantonale de Fribourg Fribourg 1892 28 135.1
Banque cantonale du Valais Valais 1916 18.5 68.5
Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino Ticino 1915 17.9 55.2
Banque cantonale neuchâteloise Neuchâtel 1883 11.6 42.6
Schaffhauser Kantonalbank Schaffhausen 1883 9.2 50.1
Glarner Kantonalbank Glarus 1884 7.8 24.4
Nidwaldner Kantonalbank Nidwalden 1879 6.2 16.2
Obwaldner Kantonalbank Obwalden 1886 6 17
Urner Kantonalbank Uri 1915 3.6 18.2
gauche Appenzeller Kantonalbank Appenzell Innerrhoden 1899 4 11.5
Banque cantonale du Jura Jura 1979 4.1 9.7
Total 748.5 1'714.7

Notes and references
  1. Cantonal Banks
  2. Nichols, Dustin I., and Mark A. Ziebold. Asset Protection Strategies & Forms. LexisNexis, 16 Nov. 2018, p. 634.
  3. Kraus, Daniel, et al. Blockchains, Smart Contracts, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations and the Law. Cheltenham, Uk ; Northampton, Ma, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019, p. 206.
  4. Union des Banques Cantonales Suisses. "Bilans et comptes de résultats des Banques Cantonales au 31.12.2021" (in French). Retrieved 10 February 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.