The Swiss financial centres were not created by a single decision but grew over six centuries. The articles collected here follow that development from the medieval fairs of Geneva and the Reformation through the Huguenot refugees, the private bankers and the first stock exchanges to banking secrecy, the Second World War, the Bergier Commission and the end of secrecy for foreign taxpayers. They explain why Swiss banks, traders and courts work the way they do today, and they give foreign readers the background that Swiss counterparties take for granted.
The Swiss financial centres grew over six centuries, from the medieval fairs of Geneva through the Reformation, the Huguenot refugees and the private bankers to the international banks of today. Their history explains why Swiss institutions work the way they do and why certain traditions, such as discretion and long-term thinking, remain so firmly rooted.
Many features that foreign readers encounter today have long roots. The unlimited liability of the private bankers, the importance of personal trust in business relationships, the orientation towards international clients and the close connection between finance and trade all developed over centuries in small city republics that depended on commerce across borders.
An understanding of this history helps to interpret present-day institutions. The strong position of the cantons in taxation and commercial life, the caution with which Swiss banks approach new clients and the preference for consensus in regulation all reflect experiences accumulated over generations, and they are easier to navigate for someone who knows how they came about.
The series also corrects common misconceptions. Banking secrecy has a longer and more complex history than popular accounts suggest, and its transformation through the automatic exchange of information is one chapter in a much longer story of adaptation to international expectations. Seen in that light, recent reforms appear as part of a continuous development.
The articles in this series follow that development: the franchises of 1387, the bill of exchange at the Geneva fairs, Calvin and interest, the Banque protestante, the Thirty Maidens of Geneva, the Fabrique, the first stock exchange and the history of banking secrecy.
The Bergier Commission: what it examined and what followed
The Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War, chaired by the historian Jean-François Bergier, carried out the most… Read more Financial History · Stock ExchangeThe Geneva stock exchange of 1850: the first in Switzerland
Geneva is credited with the first stock exchange in Switzerland, founded in 1857 at a time when joint-stock banks, railway… Read more Financial History · TimelineJacques Necker: a Geneva banker as finance minister of France
Jacques Necker, born in Geneva in 1732, rose from clerk in a Paris bank to director-general of the finances of… Read more Financial History · GenevaThe Fabrique: watchmaking as the capital source of the financial centre
In eighteenth-century Geneva the word Fabrique covered every trade connected with watchmaking and jewellery. This article describes how that cluster… Read more Financial History · GenevaThe Refuge: how 8,000 refugees changed a city of 13,000
Geneva’s reputation as a city of refuge rests on two waves of Protestant migration, one in the sixteenth century and… Read more Financial History · TimelineLyon against Geneva: Louis XI’s measures of 1462–1463 and the decline of the Geneva fairs
In 1462 and 1463 Louis XI combined trade bans, fines and generous privileges to draw the commerce of Geneva’s medieval… Read more Financial History · GenevaThe bill of exchange at the Geneva fairs: how a lettre de change worked
The bill of exchange is the most important financial innovation of the Middle Ages. It solves three problems in one… Read more Financial History · GenevaThe franchises of 1387: why Geneva permitted interest before its neighbours
The canonical prohibition of interest applied throughout Western Europe in the fourteenth century. In Geneva it applied too — and… Read more Private Banking · FundamentalsThe Geneva private banker: legal form, unlimited liability and the move to the corporation
In English, private banking describes an activity. In Switzerland, Privatbankier describes a legal form. The distinction is regularly missed in… Read more Banking Secrecy · HistorySwiss banking secrecy: enacted in 1934, ended in 2017 — and what is left of it
Swiss banking secrecy was never an absolute secret, and it has not disappeared. What entered into force in 1934 was… Read more Financial History · GenevaThe Thirty Maidens of Geneva: the first securitisation in financial history
Between 1760 and 1789 Geneva bankers built an investment structure that satisfies every element of a modern securitisation: they bought… Read more Financial History · BankingThe Banque protestante: Huguenots, the Refuge and eighteenth-century capital
Banking in Geneva was founded by refugees and their descendants. Read the family names of the oldest houses and you… Read more Financial History · GenevaCalvin and interest: what the Reformation actually changed for credit
Few sentences about financial history are repeated as often as this one: Calvin permitted interest and thereby made capitalism possible. Read more Financial History · GenevaFrom fairs to banking: Geneva between 1387 and 1536
Anyone who wants to understand why there are banks in Geneva has to begin with the fairs. They are older… Read more Financial History · GenevaGeneva as a financial centre: how a city of 200,000 came to manage the world's wealth
Geneva has around 200,000 inhabitants in the city and just over half a million in the canton. By population it… Read more