Swiss authorities profit from unexchanged banknotes
Confederation and cantons profit from banknotes that are not exchanged
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss authorities profit from unexchanged banknotes
The Swiss government and cantons will receive over CHF700 million ($840 million) from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) because old banknotes worth almost CHF1 billion have not been exchanged.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Bund und Kantone profitieren von nicht umgetauschten Banknoten
Original
According to a statement from the SNB, this concerns banknotes from the sixth series, which were recalled at the beginning of the millennium.
Banknotes from this series worth CHF989.6 million were not exchanged by the end of April 2025, which is why the majority of this money is now being distributed. Only CHF99 million will remain with the SNB, in case old banknotes are exchanged in the future.
A total of CHF178.1 million will be paid to the Swiss Fund for Assistance in the Event of Uninsurable Natural Disaster Damage (fondssuisse). Two-thirds of the remaining money will go to the cantons (CHF475 million) and one-third to the federal government (CHF237.5 million), according to the press release.
The distribution of the money is governed by the Federal Act on Currency and Payment Instruments. It stipulates that 25 years after the recall of a banknote series, the equivalent value of the banknotes that have not been exchanged will be allocated according to a distribution formula. The SNB said the beneficiaries will be paid in May 2025.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
How we work
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.
External Content
Don’t miss your chance to make a difference! Take our survey and share your thoughts.
Popular Stories
More
Aging society
No house generation: the impossibility of buying property in Switzerland
Swiss regulator criticises banks for being lax with mortgages
This content was published on
Switzerland's financial watchdog has condemned a tendency for banks to apply less stringent internal guidelines for granting mortgage loans.
Uber drivers subject to the law on services in Geneva
This content was published on
The Federal Court has ruled against a Geneva-based company, a partner of Uber, which challenged its liability under the law on the hiring of services.
Swiss nuclear power plants are not at risk from flooding
This content was published on
According to an inspection by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, the safety-relevant buildings of the Swiss nuclear power plants are not at risk.
Swiss Fairtrade label breaks billion franc barrier in sales
This content was published on
Products with the Fairtrade Max Havelaar label generated sales of more than CHF1 billion in Switzerland for the first time last year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.