Zurcher Kantonalbank (Zurich Cantonalbank)

The Zurich Cantonal Bank is the fourth largest bank in Switzerland and the largest cantonal bank. The bank was founded in 1870 with the foundational support of council member Johan Jakob Keller. Zurich Cantonal Bank was intended to be the “bank for the citizens of Zurich” and would provide for the needs of workmen and employees for their businesses and neglected industrial companies. The canton of Zurich provided the original necessary endowment capital and guaranteed the liabilities of the bank and appointed the governing board for the entity. During the early 1900s, the company would experience an accelerated growth that reflected the significant upturn of the Zurich economy. The Zurich Cantonal Bank would keep conservative business operations and be able to withstand the credit crisis of the early 1930s with relative ease and would be able to provide stability and reliability within the canton during the wars ad crises of the first half of the 1900s. The company would become an important international financial center during the later 1900s and would reach CHF 35 billion in total assets with over 3,700 employees by 1988. Although the Zurich Cantonal Bank would suffer some setbacks during the estate crisis of the 1990s and be restructured, the company would become an international universal bank. The bank would be hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis and would rely on its interest margin business to provide enough stable income for it to survive. Zurich Cantonal Bank would recover and add nine new business units in the following years. The bank is currently rated one of the five safest banks in the world and currently manages over CHF 150 billion with almost 5,000 employees. Zurich Cantonal Bank operates through a network of over 100 branches in Zurich and has its investments highly diversified with assets allocated a wide variety of sectors.