2024-11-26 16:53:00
Financial Center Initiative
Alliance wants stricter environmental rules for Swiss banks and insurers
The Swiss financial center should become more sustainable and ethical. A new initiative aims to invest in oil and coal projects.
He submitted proposals to parliament several times: Gerhard Andrey from the Greens is one of the initiators.
Photo. Keystone
- A non-partisan alliance is launching an initiative for a sustainable financial center.
- The federal government should align the financial center with ecological and international standards.
- Initiative committee calls for supervision with the authority to impose sanctions and spot checks.
- The initiative is motivating because parliamentary initiatives have so far been unsuccessful.
A non-partisan alliance has launched a popular initiative for stricter environmental regulations for the Swiss financial center. The constitution should force the federal government to make the financial center ecologically sustainable, in accordance with international standards.
On Tuesday, the popular initiative entitled “For a sustainable and future-oriented Swiss financial center (financial center initiative)” was published in the Federal Gazette. The authors have until May 26, 2026 to collect the necessary 100,000 signatures.
The committee includes current and former members of parliament from the ranks of the SP, Center Party, FDP, Greens, GLP and EPP, but also representatives of the financial sector and civil society. WWF Switzerland is responsible for communicating about the referendum.
New supervision with the possibility of sanctions
With the initiative, the alliance wants to anchor a new article on a sustainable financial center in the federal constitution. Accordingly, the federal government would have to work towards an ecologically sustainable orientation of the Swiss financial center in the future – and take measures to align the flow of financial resources accordingly.
According to the text of the initiative, companies should align their business abroad with international climate and biodiversity goals. You have to develop plans with strategies. In addition, there should be immediate restrictions on the financing of new projects to promote fossil energies such as coal or oil as well as on the expansion of existing activities.
The committee also calls for a supervisory authority. This should be able to issue orders and sanctions. According to the initiators’ ideas, controls should be carried out on suspicion and also with regular random samples.
“We finally need stricter rules”
“With the financial center initiative, we are ensuring that the Swiss financial center also makes its contribution to achieving international climate and biodiversity goals,” said WWF Switzerland boss Thomas Vellacott to the media in Bern. It is not enough for individual companies to lead the way.
The population and many SMEs are already committed to a sustainable Switzerland, said Solothurn Central National Councilor Stefan Müller-Altermatt. At the same time, the financial center abroad is driving climate change and the loss of biodiversity, for example with investments in the deforestation of rainforests or coal mining. “We have to change that.”
The Swiss financial center is responsible for at least 18 times the total domestic emissions in Switzerland, said SP co-president and Zurich National Councilor Mattea Meyer. Studies show that the financial center is not on course for climate change. “We finally need stricter rules.”
Sufficient entrepreneurial freedom
Bern’s EPP National Councilor Marc Jost pointed out that the financial center is primarily interested in big profits and growth. “The Financial Center Initiative creates the necessary framework for ethical investments that protect our planet.” Other financial centers such as Singapore are further along in terms of sustainability.
Michaël Malquarti, head of risk at a Geneva fund management company, also supports the initiative. This sets a clear environmental goal for the financial sector while giving those involved the freedom to explore the best solutions to achieve this goal, he said.
“Continuing as before is not an option,” said Bern GLP National Councilor Kathrin Bertschy with conviction. The initiative sets the course for the future viability of the financial center. “Purely voluntary measures are not enough.”
Unsuccessful attempts in parliament
The popular initiative was necessary because the parliamentary route had failed, said Gerhard Andrey, Freiburg National Councilor of the Greens, who himself had repeatedly launched initiatives on the topic. “It is up to the electorate to create clarity with the financial center initiative.”
There is sensitivity to the issue among the people – especially after the CS debacle, said Müller-Altermatt. “The sentence ‘We have the risks under control!’ the population no longer takes the banks’ interest.”
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