A post is being shared on social media with a claim that a private bank established 50 years ago was the reason behind Switzerland getting rich and developed. The post claims that the money in the accounts which were dormant for 7 years was seized and transferred to the authorities. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Switzerland became rich and developed because the money in the accounts of one of its private banks which were dormant for 7 years was seized and transferred to the authorities.
Fact: The accounts which were dormant for just 7 years are not seized and the money in them is not transferred to the authorities. The time period for such transfer is at least 60 years as per the Swiss law. That too if no claimant comes forward after the publication of information. Also, we could not find any information regarding the Swiss survey in 2000 where 99.2 percent of people opined that the seized money should go towards tourism development. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for the information regarding the dormant accounts in the Switzerland banks, a 2015 article by ‘USA Today’ was found in the search results. In the article, it can be read that – “Swiss banking authorities on Wednesday published a list of 2,600 bank accounts that have been dormant for 60 years and have around $45 million in unclaimed assets”. The information regarding the dormant accounts can be seen here.
On the ‘Dormant accounts’ website, it can be read that – “As of 1 January 2015, the Swiss Banking Act, the Banking Ordinance as well as the Guidelines of the Swiss Bankers Association (currently under revision) demand that assets of bank clients with a total value exceeding CHF 500 have to be published after having been without contact for 10 years and dormant for another 50 years, e.g., after a total of 60 years. These assets will be liquidated and transferred to the Swiss federal government if no beneficiary has submitted a justified request within a given delay. The procedure also applies to safe deposit boxes with a value of more than CHF 500 or unknown value.” So, the accounts which were dormant for just 7 years are not seized and the money in them is not transferred to the authorities. More information can be found here and here.
Also, we could not find any information regarding the Swiss survey in 2000 where 99.2 percent of people opined that the seized money should go towards tourism development. However, in a recent referendum in 2016, “the Swiss have rejected, 76.9% to 23.1%, a proposal for the government to pay every adult citizen a minimum income of 2,500 francs a month and every child 625 francs”. Some of the reasons for the rejection were “the cost of the proposal, the alternate ways of financing it, including additional taxation and cuts in existing social sector and welfare payments”. It should be noted that the recent referendum was also not about the use of seized money.
In the 1990s, there was an issue regarding the dormant accounts of Jewish people killed in the holocaust. In the ‘USA Today’ article, it can be read that – “A class action lawsuit in the United States brought on behalf of the heirs of Jewish account holders of Swiss banks was settled in 1998. A fund to compensate Holocaust survivors and their families was closed down in 2013 after it paid out $1.24 billion, Swissinfo said”. More information regarding the Swiss Holocaust accounts can be read here, here, and here.
The information regarding the functioning of Swiss banks and their secrecy can be seen here, here, here, and here.
To sum it up, the money in all the bank accounts dormant for 7 years is not seized by the Switzerland authorities.
