Genf: Die Geburt des modernen Genfer Private Banking (1815–1945)

Die Geburt des modernen Genfer Private Banking (1815–1945) – ein Teil des Buches «Genf als internationaler Finanzplatz» von Dr. Alexander Ressos.

The birth of modern Geneva private banking (1815-1945)

Between Geneva’s entry into the Confederation and the end of the Second World War, the Geneva financial centre took the shape it would retain, in essence, until the end of the twentieth century. The great private banking houses founded at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century grew and specialised in wealth management. Joint-stock banks appeared, carried by the radicalism of James Fazy and by the rise of the railways. A stock exchange was created. Switzerland gave itself a single currency and then a central bank. After the crises of the interwar years, the Federal Banking Act of 1934 instituted banking supervision and placed banking secrecy under the protection of the criminal law. The Second World War, finally, confronted the financial centre with choices that, half a century later, would be the subject of a painful reckoning.

Part D retraces this evolution in five chapters. The first covers the period of the Restoration and the founding or development of the houses that still dominate Geneva private banking. The second describes the transformations of the second half of the nineteenth century: radicalism, joint-stock banks, the stock exchange, the railways and monetary unification. The third analyses the particular status of private bankers, as partners with unlimited liability, and the culture attached to it. The fourth retraces the crises of the interwar years and the genesis of the Banking Act of 1934, including its Article 47. The fifth addresses the Second World War, dormant assets and the work of the Independent Commission of Experts chaired by Jean-François Bergier.

This part draws on sources that are more numerous and more accessible than those of the preceding parts. The founding dates of the principal houses and the chronology of the 1934 Act have been verified; other information remains to be confirmed, and the notes say so. The guiding thread remains that of the book as a whole: the way in which a financial centre built on trust constructs itself, protects itself and transforms itself in the face of crises and external pressures.

About the book

This part belongs to Geneva as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.