• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Go to Positive Money Europe

Positive Money

Making money and banking work for society

  • About us
    • Our vision
    • Who we are
    • History & highlights
    • Contact us
    • Vacancies
    • In the media
    • Funding & Annual Reports
  • What we do
    • Educate & empower
    • Research and Policy
    • Campaign & local groups
    • Influence decision makers
    • In the media
    • International Movement
    • Events
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • Publications
    • Local group resources
    • Lobby your MP
    • Organise an Event
    • Policy resources
    • Shop
  • Press
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Positive Money Europe

A chance for Sovereign Money in Switzerland

by Positive Money

Exciting News from Switzerland: An Initiative for a referendum on monetary reform is starting!

“Vollgeld” Initiative

In Switzerland anyone can bring about a national referendum on changes to the Constitution by collecting 100,000 signatures within an 18 month period. It’s called a “people’s initiative”. Our sister organisation in Switzerland (MoMo) is launching “Vollgeld Initiative” on 7th June!

‘Vollgeld’ literally means “full money” in English, and it has the same meaning as “Sovereign Money” as used by Positive Money. The ‘Vollgeld’ reform is a change in the constitution to establish the Swiss National Bank as the sole institution allowed to create money in the form of coins, bank notes and also bank deposits. Commercial banks will no longer be able to create money by granting loans, as they do now. The Swiss National Bank will have the task of creating the right amount of money (debt-free) that the Swiss economy needs, in the best interest of its citizens (how this is distributed in the economy will be decided by the government).

Support Sovereign Money in Switzerland

When is it starting?

After translating everything into German, French and Italian, MoMo will be able to start collecting signatures from 3rd June.  The launch party “Vollstart” is being held on Saturday 7th June.

What will be the consequence in Switzerland?

If MoMo can collect the signatures in time there will be a referendum in Switzerland.  That will mean all serious Swiss media will debate the issue extensively and politicians will also be expected to have an opinion on the debate. That will mean all serious Swiss newspapers and news programs will debate the issue extensively. Political parties and politicians will also be expected to have a view. The Swiss Initiative system also allows for the State to put forward a counter proposal at the same time – this is also likely to be discussed. After this referendum, regardless of result, all adults in Switzerland will have come across the arguments for and against money reform. If the referendum is successful, then Switzerland will implement money reform!

What will be the consequence internationally?

Swiss referenda are usually reported in all of the more serious newspapers across Europe. It is likely that outside of Switzerland as well as inside, economists, politicians, central bankers and the general public will widely discuss the issues. We’re hoping it might just be the catalyst for change in other countries!

Where can I get more information?

See the website vollgeld-initiative.ch, where you can find information in German, French and Italian (and a brief explanation in English). The main principles are the same as those on the Positive Money website.

You can help too even if you are not Swiss citizen

One way to help would be to donate money to the organisation bringing the Initiative: MoMo (Monetäre Modernisierung). They need many people on the streets explaining to what it’s all about and collecting signatures, and at the moment all of them are volunteers. They would like to pay for two people to work full-time in the back office organising things, managing the website etc. There are costs to get the signatures validated, and for campaign materials (flyers etc.), distribution etc. This will cost about 500,000 Swiss Francs (£330,000) in total. (Aside: Hardly any Swiss initiatives have been successful with less than around 500,000 Swiss francs). To date they have about 200,000 Francs donated or promised.

If you were able to support this initiative, it could just make all the difference to bringing this important referendum to Switzerland, and perhaps even become the catalyst for monetary reform in other countries.

To contribute to the Vollgeld campaign using PayPal, please follow this link:

Support Sovereign Money in Switzerland

Or, to use online banking, the details are:

IBAN: CH61 0900 0000 6035 4546 4,

SWIFTBIC or BIC: POFICHBEXXX

(For anyone needing help making larger donations, please ring Emma on her English number: 07958458386 or email at emma.dawnay@gmail.com)

Thank you!

 

 

Campaigns, Financial Crisis, Global Situation

Positive Money

Primary Sidebar

Get our latest campaign updates

Recent Posts

  • Apartheid in the World Bank and the IMF
  • Positive Money tells MPs that post-Brexit financial regulation falls short on environment and accountability
  • A green wish come true or more greenwash?
  • Rishi Sunak’s sending mixed messages
  • Banks fuel climate crisis to the tune of £1.9 trillion

Footer

Follow us on social media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.


Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions


Positive Money is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales. Registered number 07253015.
Registered office: 307 Davina House, 137-149 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7ET.


Positive Money Europe