Inicjatywa Vollgeld w Szwajcarii – próba reformy systemu monetarnego

Daniel Niemiec

doi:10.26354/bb.4.1.98.2025

Published : 2025-05-09

Vol. 98 No. 1 (2025)

The Vollgeld Initiative in Switzerland – an attempt to reform the monetary system

Daniel Niemiec

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8196-4412

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26354/bb.4.1.98.2025

Abstract

The Vollgeld Initiative in Switzerland was one of the important attempts to change the country’s monetary system in the current century. Its main demand was to give the central bank a monopoly on issuing digital bank money. The assumptions of the Vollgeld Initiative were based on the concept of sovereign money, which emerged in the first half of the 20^th century and was a response to the instability of the financial system. The objectives of the article were (1) to present the Vollgeld Initiative and the related concept of sovereign money, and (2) to analyze the arguments for and against the adoption of the Vollgeld Initiative. The article poses the following thesis: although in theory the concept of sovereign money allows for increased control over the lending activities of banks, in the case of a small open economy, its implementation carries numerous risks for the stability of the economic system. A critical analysis of the literature on the subject was used to verify the thesis. Data sources and literature sources were Polish and foreign academic articles and studies, Initiative Monnaie Pleine publications, documents of the Swiss National Bank and Internet sources.

Keywords:

banking sector, central bank, financial system, monetary system, sovereign money

JEL Codes

E42, E51, E52, E58, G21, G28, B29

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Niemiec, D. (2025). The Vollgeld Initiative in Switzerland – an attempt to reform the monetary system. Safe Bank, 98(1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.26354/bb.4.1.98.2025

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