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The International Banking System Faces an Existential Threat

Jan 5, 2016 | 08:00 GMT

It is hard to think of a time in the last 300 years when the banker's position in society has been more at risk. If the Swiss proposal to strip commercial banks of the ability to create money catches on, it could shred core business assumptions that have underpinned the banking model around the world.
It is hard to think of a time in the last 300 years when the banker's position in society has been more at risk. If the Swiss proposal to strip commercial banks of the ability to create money catches on, it could shred core business assumptions that have underpinned the banking model around the world.

(Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

It is hard to think of a time in the last 300 years when the banker's position in society has been more at risk. Adding to the banker's woes, Switzerland has announced that it will hold a referendum on a radical proposal that would strip commercial banks of the ability to create money, depriving them of a great deal of their profit-making capabilities. If the Swiss proposal catches on around the world, it could shred core business assumptions that have underpinned the banking model over the past three centuries....

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