Logo of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks.

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, as the canton of Jura was not formed until 1978, by its separation from the Canton of Berne. 21 are provided by the canton in which they are based, with a guarantee for the assets held there.

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 the consolidated total assets of all cantonal banks were 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 for a 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

List of cantonal banks with balance sheet and income statement information from December 2022[4]
Logo Name Canton Est. Assets
(CHF
billions)		 Consolidated
profit
(CHF millions)
Zürcher Kantonalbank Zürich 1870 199.8 1,058.7
Banque cantonale vaudoise Vaud 1845 59.4 388.3
gauche Basler Kantonalbank Basel-Stadt 1899 55.2 139
St. Galler Kantonalbank St. Gallen 1915 40.8 183.8
gauche Berner Kantonalbank | Banque Cantonale Bernoise Bern 1834 39.8 159.6
Luzerner Kantonalbank Lucerne 1850 57 226.6
Aargauische Kantonalbank Aargau 1913 38.1 179
Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank Basel-Landschaft 1864 34.8 130
Thurgauer Kantonalbank Thurgau 1871 33.3 147.8
Graubündner Kantonalbank | Banca Chantunala Grischuna | Banca Cantonale Grigione Grisons 1870 33.2 207.5
Banque cantonale de Genève Geneva 1861 30 176
Schwyzer Kantonalbank Schwyz 1890 23.6 79.9
Zuger Kantonalbank Zug 1892 18.6 97.2
Banque cantonale de Fribourg | Freiburger Kantonalbank Fribourg 1892 27.3 141.1
Banque cantonale du Valais | Walliser Kantonalbank Valais 1916 19.3 72.9
Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino Ticino 1915 18.6 64.4
Banque cantonale neuchâteloise Neuchâtel 1883 11.3 42.6
Schaffhauser Kantonalbank Schaffhausen 1883 9.2 55.3
Glarner Kantonalbank Glarus 1884 8.6 25.3
Nidwaldner Kantonalbank Nidwalden 1879 6.2 16
Obwaldner Kantonalbank Obwalden 1886 5.9 13.8
Urner Kantonalbank Uri 1915 3.6 17.1
gauche Appenzeller Kantonalbank Appenzell Innerrhoden 1899 4.1 11.9
Banque cantonale du Jura Jura 1979 4.3 10.2
Total 782.4 3,644.6

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 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 31.12.2022" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 6 July 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.