Cantonal banks are Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

  governmental-owned commercial banks, that use the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 that they are based in as guarantee for the assets held there. However, currently they are in process of being partially privatised. The cantonal banks are organised and regulated by the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, with its office in Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

.

There are 24 cantonal banks, one in each canton of the country, except in the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Appenzell Ausserrhoden is a canton of Switzerland. The seat of the government and parliament is Herisau, judicial authorities are in Trogen. Appenzell Ausserrhoden is located in the north east of Switzerland, bordering the cantons of St...

, who sold its bank to banking rival UBS

UBS AG

UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...

, and Solothurn

Solothurn

The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...

, who privatised its bank in 1995 after a scandal. Each bank uses a distinctive motif as the logo with a cantonal colour on white used as the colours of the bank, e.g. light blue for Zürcher Kantonalbank (Zurich Cantonal Bank). Despite what they seem to appear, cantonal banks are not little private banks, as two of them, Zürcher Kantonalbank and Banque Cantonale Vaudoise are the third and fourth biggest banks in Switzerland (after UBS AG

UBS AG

UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...

 and Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse

The Credit Suisse Group AG is a Swiss multinational financial services company headquartered in Zurich, with more than 250 branches in Switzerland and operations in more than 50 countries.-History:...

) .

As a group, le Groupe des Banques Cantonales amounts for about 30% of the banking sector in Switzerland.

List of Cantonal Banks

• Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) http://www.akb.ch/publish/Homepage.aspx?ActiveID=1
• Appenzeller Kantonalbank (APPKB) http://www.appkb.ch/d/htmls/index.shtml
• Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino (BancaStato) http://www.bancastato.ch/
• Banque Cantonale de Fribourg (BCF/FKB) http://www.fkb.ch/
• Banque Cantonale de Genève
  Banque Cantonale de Genève
  Banque Cantonale de Genève is a publicly traded Swiss bank dedicated to the development of the Canton of Genève, and doing business throughout Switzerland and France.-History:...
  
   (BCGE) http://www.bcge.ch
• Banque Cantonale du Jura (BCJU) http://www.bcju.ch/
• Banque Cantonale du Valais (BCVS/WKB) http://info.bcvs.ch/
• Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise
  Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise
  Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise is a Swiss bank based in the canton of Neuchâtel....
  
   (BCN) https://www.bcn.ch/BCNe/ihbp/ep/home.do
• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV) http://www.bcv.ch
• Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB) http://www.blkb.ch/
• Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) http://www.bkb.ch/
• Berner Kantonalbank (BEKB/BCBE) http://www.bekb.ch/fr/index.htm
• Glarner Kantonalbank (GLKB) http://www.glkb.ch/
• Graubündner Kantonalbank
  Graubündner Kantonalbank
  The Graubundner Kantonalbank is a Swiss cantonal bank which is part of the 24 Cantonal bank's serving Switzerland's 26 cantons. The headquarters are located in Chur, and there are 76 branches around Graubünden.- History :The bank was founded in 1870...
  
   (GKB) http://www.gkb.ch/internet/home.nsf/vPageID/home
• Luzerner Kantonalbank
  Luzerner Kantonalbank
  Luzerner Kantonalbank is the cantonal bank and the dominant retail banking group in the Swiss canton of Lucerne, with a market share of 50-60%. It is main focus on financing small businesses and personal mortgages in the local economy, the bank has avoided some of the issues facing its larger...
  
   (LUKB) http://www.lukb.ch/DieLUKB/default.htm
• Nidwaldner Kantonabank (NWKB) http://www.nkb.ch/
• Obwaldner Kantonalbank (OWKB) http://www.owkb.ch/index_main.cfm?flash=yes
• St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB) http://www.sgkb.ch/
• Schaffhauser Kantonalbank (SHKB) http://www.shkb.ch/
• Schwyzer Kantonalbank (SZKB) http://www.szkb.ch/ww/de/pub/home.cfm
• Thurgauer Kantonalbank (TKB) http://www.tkb.ch/index.cfm?screensize=915
• Urner Kantonalbank (URKB) http://www.urkb.ch/
• Zuger Kantonalbank (ZugerKB) http://www.zugerkb.ch/home/
• Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) http://www.zkb.ch

External links

• Website of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks, which has information on all the cantonal banks.