Measures proposed to protect bank clients

The government has put forward proposals to protect the accounts of small investors in the case of a bank failing.

It wants to scrap the current system of self-regulation and replace it by a legally established fund paid for by the banks themselves. If the fund ran out, the state would make an advance or give a guarantee, which would also be funded by a premium paid by the banks.

The fund, to be set up gradually, would have a capital of SFr9.75 billion ($9.39 billion), equivalent to three per cent of all guaranteed deposits.

Last December parliament raised the ceiling on guaranteed bank deposits from SFr30,000 to SFr100,000.

The proposed fund would provide the means to reimburse clients within 20 days of their bank failing, the finance ministry said on Monday.

The new proposals are designed to fill gaps in December’s emergency measures, which in any case run out at the end of 2010.

Interested parties have until the end of 2009 to discuss them and to express their opinions.

swissinfo.ch and agencies