Bank files Ausserrhoden gets back the archive of its defunct bank
After years of negotiations, UBS and the Ausserrhoden government have reached an agreement on the archive of the defunct cantonal bank. Thanks to new contracts, it is foreseeable that it will once again become the property of the canton. The private ownership of the files was a political issue for years.
27.09.2024, 09:31
SDA
What was the downfall of the once proud Swissair for Switzerland was the loss of its own cantonal bank for Ausserrhoden. The Ausserrhoden Cantonal Bank (ARKB), which was sold to Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in 1996, is still an issue today.
Ausserrhoden not only lost its bank, which had got into financial difficulties due to dubious transactions - including the financing of a brothel in Geneva - but the bank archive was transferred to SBG in the 1990s and later to UBS AG. For decades, it managed the files of the originally public-law institution as a private archive.
The fact that UBS's internal guidelines have applied to the inspection of files since an agreement in 2003 at the latest, disturbed the Ausserrhoden SP cantonal councillor Judith Egger. The constitutional right of third parties to inspect official files had been undermined. At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, UBS confirmed in writing: "The UBS company archive is a private archive, which is why its holdings are not accessible to the public." The media office did not answer further questions, such as whether requests from researchers for access had been granted.
Destruction of files feared
Among other things, the status of the ARKB archive as a private archive prompted Egger to submit her postulate "for the transfer of the cantonal bank archive to the state archive of Appenzell Ausserrhoden" over ten years ago. "By recognizing UBS's ownership of the cantonal bank archives, the canton not only relinquished the power to decide on the right of inspection, but in the worst case also the power to decide on the possible destruction of files," said Egger.
The question of whether the files still existed at all had hovered over the negotiations like a sword of Damocles. Now the archive is secured for the long term.
All ARKB files are already physically back in the state archives in Herisau. This is regulated by the so-called outsourcing agreement, as can be seen in the final report of the Ausserrhoden government on the SP postulate. However, the State Archives can only decide on requests for access to the files once they are effectively the property of the canton again. Before that, UBS will continue to decide on access to the files stored in the State Archives.
The question of ownership is governed by the second contract, the so-called takeover agreement. Documents that are subject to bank-client confidentiality become the property of the canton again no later than 60 years after they are archived. A new batch of files is to be handed over every two years.
No separation possible
This means that UBS's ownership of official files - which the SP believes are inalienable and should never have become the property of a private company - has been recognized for a second time, criticized SP cantonal councillor Egger. She would have liked the files containing information on client relationships to have been separated immediately from the official files, such as the minutes of Bank Commission meetings or annual reports. According to Egger, the files could then have immediately become the property of the canton.
Jutta Hafner and Roger Nobs said that a separation of customer and corporate body files had been examined. As the state archivist for Ausserrhoden, Hafner has examined the ARKB files, while Nobs was involved in the negotiations with UBS as Ausserrhoden council clerk.
According to Hafner and Nobs, customer and corporate records are often combined in the same volumes. It would be contrary to archival standards to separate bound file series. A clear separation of organ and customer files is therefore not possible.
"Central player in economic history"
Like SP cantonal councillor Egger, Nobs and Hafner are also concerned about the condition of the archive. "It is extremely important that the files are all together and in our state archives. Especially in view of the fact that for a very long time we didn't know whether all the files were still there and where exactly they were," said Nobs.
The canton has succeeded in securing the files of a key player in Ausserrhoden's economic history for the long term, he continued. Nobs and Hafner agree that the files of the ARKB under the aegis of UBS have been preserved in their entirety.
However, State Archivist Hafner dampens expectations that when the ARKB files from the 1990s also become the property of the canton in around 30 years' time and can be viewed in accordance with the rules of the State Archives, new insights into the decline of ARKB will come to light. "Especially as all of the cantonal administration's files on ARKB are already archived in the state archives," says Hafner. In two reports from 1996, the decline had already been comprehensively reviewed by external experts with full access to the files.
SP cantonal councillor Judith Egger takes a different view. She hopes to gain new insights as soon as the State Archives, and no longer UBS, decides on the right of access. "Was UBS really the only bank that was interested in buying ARKB?", says Egger, citing what she considers to be an open question. She also hopes that researchers will be able to shed more light on the events in the final days of ARKB's existence.
