No More State Guarantee for Postfinance Customers

Is Postfinance still a secure bank now that deposits are no longer guaranteed by the Swiss federal government?

How will the loss of federal depositor protection affect Postfinance customers?

Thanks in advance for your feedback on this issue.

Cheers

Hi there,

The federal depositor protection which formerly guaranteed assets in Postfinance accounts in full was suspended at the end of September 2017. Postfinance customers who previously benefited from unlimited protection of their assets by the federal government have not enjoyed this benefit since October 2017.

Assets are now protected by the depositor protection scheme operated by Esisuisse. This is the same scheme which insures assets held in all commercial Swiss banks. Esisuisse only guarantees up to 100,000 Swiss francs of assets per bank and customer. The maximum sum insured by the scheme per bank is 6 billion francs. Postfinance manages assets well in excess of the amount covered by the Esisuisse depositor protection scheme.

The suspension of the federal government gurantee means that assets deposited at Postfinance no longer benefit from more protection than those deposited at private retail banks.

The lack of information provided by Postfinance to its customers with regards to this change was the subject of criticism.

With the suspension of the federal guarantee of deposits at Postfinance, only cantonal banks continue to benefit from state guarantees. Assets held at most cantonal banks benefit from an unlimited depositor protection guarantee provided by their corresponding cantonal governments. Exceptions to this rule include the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), the Berner Kantonalbank (BEKB) and the Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE).

While Postfinance remains a financially strong bank, customers with large amounts of assets could consider dividing their assets between multiple banks to obtain the maximum benefit of the Esisuisse depositor protection scheme due to the coverage limit of 100,000 francs per customer and bank.

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Best regards from Moneyguru

More on this topic:
Swiss bank depositor protection explained