Full-reserve banking

Full-reserve banking (also known as 100% reserve banking, or sovereign money system) is a system of banking where banks do not lend demand deposits and instead only lend from time deposits. It differs from fractional-reserve banking, in which banks may lend funds on deposit, while fully reserved banks would be required to keep the full amount of each customer's demand deposits in cash, available for immediate withdrawal.

Monetary reforms that included full-reserve banking have been proposed in the past, notably in 1935 by a group of economists, including Irving Fisher, under the so-called "Chicago plan" as a response to the Great Depression.[1][2]

Currently, no country in the world requires full-reserve banking across primary credit institutions, although Iceland has considered it.[3][4] In a 2018 ballot referendum, 75% of Swiss voters voted against the Sovereign Money Initiative which had full reserve banking as a prominent component of its proposed reform of the Swiss monetary system.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ A banking revolution Jeremy Warner, UK Telegraph
  2. ^ Weisenthal, Joe. "BAN ALL THE BANKS: Here's The Wild Idea That People Are Starting To Take Seriously". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  3. ^ Iceland's daring raid on fractional reserve banks, Financial Times
  4. ^ "Iceland looks at ending boom and bust with radical money plan". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  5. ^ Switzerland's 'Vollgeld' banking overhaul: how reform would work
  6. ^ Atkins, Ralph (10 June 2018). "Swiss voters reject 'sovereign money' initiative". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  7. ^ swissinfo.ch/sb. "Vote survey shows no generation gap but misunderstandings". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2020-11-30.