Following in Iceland’s footsteps, Switzerland has petitioned for a new initiative that will severely cripple commercial banks by taking away their ability to lend money they don’t actually have.
Iceland has been in the spotlight the last couple of years after they began prosecuting criminal bankers. They began the process, which no other nation has done, after their economic collapse in 2008. In 2015, 26 Icelandic bankers were sentenced to prison for their role in the collapse.
According to The Telegraph:
Switzerland will hold a referendum to decide whether to ban commercial banks from creating money.
The Swiss federal government confirmed on Thursday that it would hold a plebiscite, after more than 110,000 people signed a petition calling for the central bank to be given sole power to create money in the financial system.
The campaign – led by the Swiss Sovereign Money movement and known as the Vollgeld initiative – is designed to limit financial speculation by requiring private banks to hold 100pc reserves against their deposits.
In Switzerland, where there is direct democracy, a referendum where the citizens get to vote on popular initiatives can be held if the motion gains 100,000 signatures within 18 months.
Switzerland may be key to changing how world banking functions. The country is the world’s safe harbor for storing wealth as well as home to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS is a private company owned by many of the world’s central banks and is known as the heart of global reserve banking, known as the policy that allows banks to lend money they don’t actually have. This means that money is electronic, instead of backed by actual physical assets.
Taking this ability away from big banks would keep them from being able to manipulate the world’s economy.
There is criticism of the initiative, however. If it was successful, full power of physical and electronic money creation would be given to the Swiss National Bank, who is already the sole power with right to produce mint coins and Swiss banknotes. Now they would also have the power to create electronic funds, which currently are created when private banks issue things like lines of credit. Many believe that this changing of power, with the government having the final say in money creation, would not successfully solve the problems created by current banking practices.
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