Swiss banks publish list of bank accounts that have been dormant for 60 years
GENEVA (WJC) — Swiss banks on Wednesday published the names of more than 2,600 people whose bank accounts in Switzerland have lain dormant for more than 60 years, giving them or their heirs one last chance to claim their wealth before it reverts to the state.
The banking industry said around CHF 44 million (US $ 44.5 million) were lying fallow in bank accounts that had gone untouched since at least 1955. There are also around 80 safety deposit boxes whose contents and owners are unclear.
The searchable website https://www.dormantaccounts.ch went live on Wednesday following new legislation that took effect last January.
“By publishing this information, the banks are making a last attempt to re-establish contact with the customer,” said Claude-Alain Margelisch, chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association. “For the banks, on the other hand, these new regulations create legal certainty for the treatment of dormant assets.”
More names will be added to the list every year as the 60-year period rolls on. The deadline for submitting requests is one year from the date of publication. It could take weeks or months to evaluate claims, the banking association says, adding banks may charge their costs to claimants who file clearly unfounded requests.
During the 1990s, the World Jewish Congress led a campaign for Swiss banks to return assets of Holocaust victims. In 1998, Swiss banks agreed to a US$ 1.25-billion settlement of these claims.
The website provides information regarding dormant assets held at Swiss banks for which the last customer contact was at least 60 years ago and the value of which is above CHF 500 or is unknown.
As of 1 January 2015, Swiss law demands that assets of bank clients with a total value exceeding that amount have to be published after having been without contact for ten years and dormant for another 50 years, e.g. after a total of 60 years. These assets will be liquidated and transferred to the Swiss government if no beneficiary has submitted a justified request within a given delay.
The procedure also applies to safe deposit boxes with an estimated value of more than CHF 500.
The deadline for submitting requests is one year from the date of publication or, in the case of assets for which the last customer contact was in 1954 or earlier, five years. If a request is clearly unfounded, and the person making the claim cannot credibly demonstrate a connection with the assets claimed, the bank may require that person to reimburse the costs incurred by the bank in examining the claim. (Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress)
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Hungarian P.M. declines to support statue of Bálint Hóman
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder on Wednesday praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s decision not to support a statue in the city of Székesfehérvár to honor the late Bálint Hóman, a government minister in the 1930s and 1940s who was the driving force for anti-Jewish laws in Hungary and a supporter of Nazi Germany, with taxpayer funds.
“Prime Minister Orbán’s clear statement on this matter comes very late, but it is nonetheless welcome. I thank him for making the standpoint of the Hungarian government very clear: No honors must be given to those who prepared the ground for the mass murder of 600,000 Hungarian Jews by Nazi Germany in 1944.
“It would have been a travesty if the taxpayer, including more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews, would have had to contribute toward a statue for a man who not only hated Jews, but who helped actively in their persecution.”
Lauder added that the statue “is an affront to the many Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.”
In statements in July and earlier this month, Lauder had called on Orbán to intervene in this matter and to ensure that this statue was not built with public funds.
The WJC president also thanked the US government, and in particular the State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ira N. Forman, for opposing the statue. “Ira Forman was in Hungary in the past few days, and he spoke out against the statue very clearly. I want to thank him, as well as Secretary of State John Kerry, for raising this issue with the Hungarian authorities. Clearly, their efforts have paid off,” declared Lauder.
On Sunday, Forman had a Hanukkah candle lighting and protest in Székesfehérvár organized by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (Mazsihisz).
From 1931, Bálint Hóman, an academic and historian, served as a minister in several Horthy governments. He played a significant role in the drafting of anti-Jewish laws adopted in Hungary during the late 1930s.
The life-size bronze statue honoring Hóman is the brainchild of the Székesfehérvár-based Bálint Hóman Foundation, but it was to be funded in large parts by a grant from the Hungarian Justice Ministry.
The foundation now wants to postpone the unveiling of the statue, initially planned for 29 December 2015, and start a fundraising campaign to pay for it privately. (Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress)