Value added, savings and mortgages: the domestic weight of banking

The financial sector in the cantonal economy

The most recent estimate of the economic contribution of the financial sector in Ticino comes from BAK Economics, which calculated in 2025 that the sector generated about one twelfth of cantonal value added. In 2023 that meant CHF 2.8 billion, or 7.9 per cent of the cantonal gross domestic product, against a national average of 9.4 per cent. The sector provided about 10,700 full-time equivalent jobs, 5.2 per cent of cantonal employment. Within the financial sector the banks accounted for 55.9 per cent of value added, the insurance companies for 20.1 per cent and the remaining financial services, including asset managers and fiduciaries active in finance, for the rest.¹ On these figures the value added of Ticino banks can be put at roughly CHF 1.6 billion a year, a calculation that the reader should treat as an approximation derived from the BAK percentages.

The same study shows how slowly the sector has grown over the last decade. Between 2013 and 2023 the value added of the Ticino financial sector grew by an average of 0.6 per cent a year, while the cantonal economy as a whole grew by 1.5 per cent and the insurance sector by 3.4 per cent.² In other words, finance lost weight in the Ticino economy during the decade in which the end of banking secrecy towards Italy took effect. The ABT and the cantonal government continue to describe the sector as one of the pillars of the economy. At the general assembly of the ABT on 18 June 2025 the association's president, Alberto Petruzzella, stressed the national figures: according to his speech the banking sector employs 3.6 per cent of the Swiss workforce, contributes 5.5 per cent of national value added and generates 12.5 per cent of tax revenue. The State Councillor responsible for finance and the economy, Christian Vitta, added that the results of Ticino's banks had been "even superior to those of Zurich and Geneva".³

National comparisons help to place these numbers. In 2025 Swiss banks reported an aggregate balance sheet total of CHF 3,191 billion, assets under management of about CHF 9.7 trillion, of which CHF 2.9 trillion belonged to cross-border wealth management, and 92,002 full-time equivalent employees in Switzerland.⁴ The 5,218 full-time equivalents counted in Ticino in 2023 correspond to roughly 5.7 per cent of the national figure, a share that is somewhat larger than Ticino's share of the Swiss population of about four per cent and much smaller than its share of Swiss banks.⁵ The comparison confirms what Table 2 suggested: Ticino hosts many institutions of small size.

Notes

1. BAK Economics (May 2025, above) ("Il settore finanziario genera circa un dodicesimo del valore aggiunto"; CHF 2.8 billion and 7.9 per cent of cantonal GDP in 2023; Switzerland 9.4 per cent; 10,700 FTE, 5.2 per cent of employment; banks 55.9 per cent and insurance 20.1 per cent of financial sector value added). ↩
2. BAK Economics (May 2025, above) (average annual growth 2013–2023: insurance 3.4 per cent, cantonal economy 1.5 per cent, financial sector 0.6 per cent). ↩
3. finews.ch, "Piazza finanziaria ticinese: servono regole chiare e stabili" (June 2025), https://www.finews.ch/ticino/68068-piazza-finanziaria-ticinese-stabili-alberto-petruzzella-franco-citterio-roman-studer-swiss-banking-gabriel-bourquin-christian-vitta (general assembly of the ABT at Villa Negroni on 18 June 2025). ↩
4. Swiss Bankers Association, Banking Barometer 2026 (above) (aggregate balance sheet total CHF 3,191.3 billion; assets under management CHF 9.729 trillion; cross-border wealth management CHF 2,945.7 billion, +7.6 per cent; 92,002 domestic FTE). ↩
5. Calculated from USTAT, 12 Denaro e banche (March 2026, above), T. 12.3, and the Banking Barometer 2026 (above). The years differ (2023 and 2025). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.