Swiss Voters Reject Radical Sovereign Money Plan in Landslide
- Result in line with prediction in polls ahead of Vollgeld vote
- Plebiscites are central part of Switzerland’s direct democracy
A pedestrian looks towards the Swiss National Bank (SNB) building in Bern.
Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Swiss voters dismissed a radical proposal to overturn one of the financial system’s core tenets.
The so-called sovereign money initiative, or “Vollgeld,” would have ended the system of fractional reserve banking that’s been around for centuries by allowing only the Swiss National Bank to “create” money. But 75.7 percent of voters rejected the measure, according to the government.