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Logo of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks.

The cantonal banks (German: Kantonalbank, French: banque cantonale, Italian: banca cantonale) are 24 Swiss government-owned commercial banks. Most of them were founded between 1834 and 1916, although the Banque cantonale du Jura was founded in 1979. 21 are provided by the canton in which they are based with a guarantee for the assets held there.

Description

Traditionally, cantonal banks are especially strong in savings and mortgage products.^[1] Currently they are in the process of being partially privatised. The cantonal banks are organised and regulated by the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, with its office in Basel.

As a group, the cantonal banks account for about 30% of the banking sector in Switzerland, with a network of over 800 branches and 16 000 employees in Switzerland. In 2014 consolidated total assets of all cantonal banks accounted around 500 bln CHF, which is comparable with those of the "Big Banks": UBS and Credit Suisse.^[1]

There are 24 cantonal banks, one in each canton of the country, except for the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, which sold its bank to banking rival UBS, and Solothurn, which privatised its bank in 1995 after a scandal. Each bank uses a distinctive motif as the logo, with a cantonal colour on white used as the colours of the bank, e.g. light blue for Zürcher Kantonalbank (Zurich Cantonal Bank). Despite appearances, cantonal banks are not small private banks: in fact two of them, the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Banque cantonale vaudoise, are the third and fourth biggest banks in Switzerland (after UBS and Credit Suisse).

List of cantonal banks

• 
  Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) [1] founded 1913


• 
  Appenzeller Kantonalbank (APPKB) [2] founded 1899


• 
  Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino (BancaStato) [3] founded 1915


• 
  Banque cantonale de Fribourg (BCF/FKB) [4] founded 1892


• 
  Banque cantonale de Genève (BCGE) [5] founded 1861


• 
  Banque cantonale du Jura (BCJU) [6] founded 1979


• 
  Banque cantonale du Valais (BCVS/WKB) [7] founded 1916


• 
  Banque cantonale neuchâteloise (BCN) [8] founded 1883


• 
  Banque cantonale vaudoise (BCV) [9] founded 1845


• 
  Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB) [10] founded 1864


• 
  Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) [11] founded 1899


• 
  Berner Kantonalbank (BEKB/BCBE) [12] founded 1834


• 
  Glarner Kantonalbank (GLKB) [13] founded 1884


• 
  Graubündner Kantonalbank (GKB) [14] founded 1870


• 
  Luzerner Kantonalbank (LUKB) [15] founded 1850


• 
  Nidwaldner Kantonalbank (NWKB) [16] founded 1879


• 
  Obwaldner Kantonalbank (OWKB) [17] founded 1886


• 
  St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB) [18] founded 1915


• 
  Schaffhauser Kantonalbank (SHKB) [19] founded 1883


• 
  Schwyzer Kantonalbank (SZKB) [20] founded 1890


• 
  Thurgauer Kantonalbank (TKB) [21] founded 1871


• 
  Urner Kantonalbank (URKB) [22] founded 1915


• 
  Zuger Kantonalbank (ZugerKB) [23] founded 1892


• 
  Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) [24] founded 1870

Notes and references

External links

• Website of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, which has information on all the cantonal banks.