Geneva Cantonal Bank

Origins

The Banque Cantonale de Genève is the result of a merger of two institutions, the "Caisse d'Épargne de la République et Canton de Genève" and the "Banque Hypothécaire du Canton de Genève", both established during the 19th century, making it the oldest cantonal bank.

In 1816, the State of Geneva created the Caisse d'Épargne de Genève upon the proposal of Jean Auguste Pyrame de Candolle and Richard Tronchin; Tronchin participating in the foundation of the establishment by providing the guarantee capital. The bank replaced the previous Caisse d'Épargne et de Dépôt established in the city in 1789. The goal of the new bank is to finance the activity of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Geneva region while encouraging the population, especially the working class, to accumulate savings. By statute, the bank is a foundation governed by public law. When it was founded in 1816, its offices were located at Geneva City Hall. The bank then took up occupancy at 113 rue des Chanoines (now 10 rue Calvin). As of 1839, it moved to 12 rue de la Corraterie. To foster further development, the establishment built a new building located at the intersection of Boulevard du Théâtre and Rue Petitot in 1879, then a second building in 1913, located at 4 rue de la Corraterie. The number of depositors increased from 12,935 in 1859 to 89,828 in 1910 and by 1913, the majority of Genevans had a bankbook at the Caisse d'Épargne. In 1968, customer deposits reached 750 million francs. In 1987, the Caisse d'Épargne became the CEG-Caisse d'Épargne, then changed its name again three years later to become CEG Genève. CEG Genève opened its first branch in France in 1993, with the head office in Lyon and a branch in Annecy. In 1993, the bank employed 530 employees throughout the canton of Geneva.

The Caisse hypothécaire was founded in 1847 by James Fazy. The bank initially catered to a client base made up primarily of farmers. From a statutory perspective, the bank is a corporation under public law: the municipalities own the capital but the institution does not possess a government-backed guarantee. Its offices were initially located on Rue de la Pelisserie. Two years later in 1849, the bank moved to Place du Molard. In 1976, the institution changed its name to "Banque Hypothécaire du Canton de Genève", abbreviated BHCG or simply BCG. Starting in 1987, the institution opened its capital to the general public through the issue of bearer shares, although the majority of the capital remained with the Geneva municipalities through registered shares. In the period from 1987 to 1990, the bank built a new head office located at Quai de l'Île 17, inaugurated in 1991. In 1994, the building became the headquarters of the new Banque Cantonale de Genève.

A merger of the two institutions was considered several times during the 20th century. Several unsuccessful projects were launched by Socialist MPs: Jules Roux in the course of the 1930s, then Alex Burtin in the 1960s. The project came to fruition in the early 1990s in the context of increased competition and crisis in the Swiss real estate market, which generated significant losses for local banking institutions inciting them to pool their costs. In 1992, the Grand Council of Geneva passed a resolution of principle in favour of a merger of the two establishments; the citizens of the city later approved the project in 1993 after a vote. The Banque Cantonale de Genève was founded on 1 January 1994. Two-thirds of the new institution originated from CEG Genève and one-third from Banque Hypothécaire du Canton de Genève.

Restructuring

At the end of the 1990s, the bank experienced financial difficulties, in particular because of a high proportion of loans not repaid by customers. 68% of these loans were from the former CEG Genève, 29% from the former Banque Hypothécaire, and 3% from new loans issued by the BCGE since its establishment. In 2000, the institution had to be bailed out and was recapitalised by the Canton of Geneva, with the help of an ad hoc foundation (the "Fondation de valorisation") which assumed over five billion francs in loans. Dominique Ducret, President, and Marc Fues, chief executive officer, resigned from their posts.

At the same time, the bank was the subject of accusations relating to its management. In October 1999, Bernard Monnot, former director of the bank's Lyon branch, stated that 573 million French francs deposited with the bank between 1996 and 1998 had been processed by the institution in the context of money laundering. Five shareholders filed a complaint against the bank in 2000 following these statements. The investigation became widely publicised because Socialist MP Arnaud Montebourg, spokesperson of the French parliamentary mission dedicated to this case, accused Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France, of complicity by refusing to denounce the alleged actions of the bank. BCGE and the Banque de France denied the accusations made against them. The proceedings were dismissed: in the absence of evidence, the Prosecutor General of Geneva, Bernard Bertossa, judged the complaint as unfounded and closed the case without further action on 14 November 2001.

However, in March 2001, the State of Geneva and BCGE brought civil actions against the former management of the bank, accusing them of having voluntarily drawn up fraudulent documents on the financial situation of the institution. For the same reason, in February 2003, the State of Geneva launched a civil action against the audit firm Ernst & Young which had validated the accounts. The investigation lasted several years, resulting in 280 hearings and 3,700 pages of minutes by 2007. An investigation was opened in 2009 and Dominique Ducret, former president of the bank, Marc Fues, former director, René Curti his deputy, as well as two auditors from Ernst & Young were tried. They were accused of forgery and criminal mismanagement for an alleged damage of 2.3 billion francs. According to the indictment, the accused having discovered that in 1996 the financial and accounting situation of BCGE was in danger, partly because of debtors at risk, concealed the information from the Board of directors by publishing falsified annual results from 1996 to 1998. Instead of setting up provisions, the bank paid out dividends to shareholders, granted bonuses to managers and failed to alert the Swiss Federal Banking Commission. According to Attorney General Daniel Zappelli, the three BCGE officials hid the catastrophic situation of the establishment to keep their positions, salaries and bonuses. The verdict was rendered on 22 July 2011 by the Criminal Court: Marc Fues and René Curti were found guilty of forgery and acquitted of the other charges. The Federal Supreme Court essentially upheld this decision. Dominique Ducret was acquitted of all the charges for which he was prosecuted and received financial compensation.

In 2017, the Ensemble à Gauche party drew up a regularization bill (PL 12238) aimed at the Banque Cantonale de Genève, which was to reimburse the sums associated with its bail-out in 2000, i.e. 3.2 billion francs. The project launched a significant debate between defenders and critics. In 2018, Ensemble à Gauche organised a constitutional initiative to pass this bill. However, the project was rejected by the Council of State and the Constitutional Chamber of the Geneva Court of Justice. This decision was confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court in 2020, on the grounds that this would result in the bank being placed in a situation of over-indebtedness and would then be forced into bankruptcy.

Branches

The bank's head office is located in Geneva and its network consists of 21 branches in the canton of Geneva. In Switzerland, the company also has three branches in Lausanne (since 1997), Zurich (since 1997) and Basel (since 2019).

In France, the bank operates through its subsidiary "Banque Cantonale de Genève (France) SA" located in Lyon since 1993. The company also has branches in Annecy and Paris, the latter having been opened in 2010.

Outside Switzerland and France, the bank has two representative offices in Dubai (since 2010) and Hong Kong (since 2010 also). In Hong Kong, BCGE is an exception in the Swiss banking landscape by offering the opening of checking accounts in renminbi since 2015.

Subsidiaries

In parallel with its initial banking activities, the BCGE group has founded or acquired specialised subsidiaries to diversify its businesses in the field of finance:

Legal form and governance

The Banque Cantonale de Genève is a limited company subject to Swiss banking legislation. 72.6% of the capital is held by the Geneva public authorities: the State of Geneva holds 44.3%, the city of Geneva holds 20.9%, while the Geneva municipalities hold 7.4%. It has the status of a cantonal bank within the meaning of Article 3a of the Swiss Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks of 8 November 1934. As such, it is a member of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, a network of 24 cantonal banks present in Switzerland. As of 1 January 2017, its liabilities are no longer guaranteed by the State of Geneva.

Since 2005, the bank has been administered by an 11-member board of directors. The composition is determined by law.

In terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), BCGE received the prize for gender diversity within its board of directors from "Cercle suisse des administratrices" (Swiss Circle of Women Directors) in 2017. In the same spirit, the bank carries out a salary review every two years to ensure equal pay for men and women.