Save our Swiss Gold

Save our Swiss Gold motion is a citizen movement that calls for the Swiss central bank to hold at least 20% of its assets in gold, prohibit selling any gold in future and bring back all its gold reserves to Switzerland.[1][2][3]

World Gold Reserves from 1845 to 2013, in tonnes (also known as metric tons in the United States)
Changes in Central Bank Gold Reserves by Country 1993-2014. Switzerland sold three times more gold than any other country.
Drastic decline in Swiss gold reserves occurred during 1997- 2005

The Swiss government and the Swiss National Bank (SNB), however, do not agree with this citizen movement and stepped up efforts to block the motion that would force the country to almost triple the amount of its gold reserves.[4] The group argue that gold is a barrier to devaluation of fiat paper currencies and that there is a key flaw in the system of floating paper currencies. When a currency moves, it creates winners and losers, big movements can harm banks with loan portfolios outside abroad. The group argues that gold is a barrier to debasement of fiat currencies.[5]

The movement was started by 3 Swiss People's Party politicians – Parliamentarians Luzi Stamm, Lukas Reimann and Ulrich Schlüer – the initiative to "Save Switzerland's gold" was handed in to the Federal Chancellery in 2013. A referendum under Switzerland's system of self-government requires 100,000 signatures to get on the ballot. 5 million Swiss voters could vote on the proposal, this referendum was held on 30 November 2014 and the result was no. If a yes vote had passed, then

  • under the "Save Our Swiss Gold" initiative the Swiss National Bank (SNB) would have been obliged to hold at least a fifth of its assets in gold within five years.
  • the bank would have been required to repatriate all Swiss gold held abroad and
  • been banned from selling any of its gold holdings in future.

20% of Switzerland's 1,040 tonnes of gold reserves are held with The Bank of England and nearly a third with the Canadian Central Bank.

See also

References
  1. Neil MacLucas (24 October 2014). "Swiss Vote on SNB Gold Holdings too Close to Call, Poll Shows". WSJ.
  2. Chiara Albanese And Ese Erheriene (29 October 2014). "Markets Nervous Ahead of Swiss Gold Vote". WSJ.
  3. "Sober Look".
  4. Currency traders eye Swiss vote on gold holdings
  5. Keith Weiner (19 November 2014). "Swiss Gold Initiative: Good Idea With Unintended Consequences". Forbes.
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