Swiss Review / December 2021 / No.6 23 tomers to make cashless payments. The general public has followed their advice and, according to the SNB survey, not looked back since. Will banknotes and coins become obsolete? Or could cash even be abolished for good and become the exclusive realm of enthusiastic collectors? For years, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Kenneth Rogoff, has been advocating what he calls a “less-cash society”. He believes that limiting the circulation of cash would not only allow governments to combat financial crimes such as tax evasion and the funding of terrorism and drug use more effectively, but it would also make it easier for themto enforce negative interest rates. The cash comeback However, Switzerland is seeing a different trendwhich illustrates the nation’s paradoxical love affair with physical money. Although the Swiss are using less cash, the amount of Swiss franc notes in circulation is rising. “Banknote circulation has been increasing steadily for many years,” says SNB spokesman Christoph Hirter. “People also generally tend to hoard more cash during crises.” As far as the Swiss franc is concerned, the cash curve has been climbing since around the time of the 2008 financial crisis and, according to Hirter, continued upwards in the Covid year of 2020. The SNB keeps an exact account of how many banknotes of each denomination are in circulation. The corresponding value of these notes is currently 84.5 billion francs, of which over half consists of about 48 million 1,000-franc notes. If this money was shared equally, every Swiss man, woman and child would have 10,000 francs in cash, including six 1,000-franc banknotes. So, how come the majority of those questioned in the SNB survey said they kept less than 1,000 francs in cash? Cash for freedom “Your calculation fails to take account of the proportion of Swiss cash in circulation that is located abroad,” Hirter points out. There are undoubtedly psychological and ideological factors in play too. Take the Swiss Freedom Movement for example. The pressure group is currently collecting signatures for a popular initiative to preserve cash. The rise in cashless payments and the inevitable digital footprint that this creates provide greater scope for snooping and make it easier for the state to violate people’s privacy, laments the former SVP party secretary in Lucerne, Richard Koller, who chairs the group. “Cash is freedom, independence, and part of our culture,” he says. And too precious to give away. Whether you share his viewor not, cash in Switzerland is imbued with an aura and mystique that easily outstrips its nominal value. From the ten-centime coin to the 1,000-franc note. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) recalled its eighth-series banknotes as of 30 April 2021. As a result, these notes are no longer regular tender. And the interim period during which these old banknotes were still accepted as tender at the public counters of Swiss Post and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) expired at the end of October. However, the banknotes can be exchanged for an unlimited period at the SNB in Berne or Zurich or at any one of the SNB agencies in Appenzell, Chur, Fribourg, Geneva, Glarus, Liestal, Lucerne, Sarnen, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Sion, Stans and Zug. Please note that certain agencies have limits with regard to such exchanges. Visit the SNB website – www.snb.ch – for further information. An instruction sheet containing everything you need to know about exchanging banknotes is also available at revue.link/banknotes. OSA LEGAL SERVICE What to do with your old banknotes I recently heard that “old” Swiss banknotes will no longer be legal tender from this autumn. How can I avoid losing my money, or is there nothing I can do about this? Although these notes are no longer legal tender, they may be exchanged at the Swiss National Bank and its agencies. Photo: Keystone
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