World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks

The World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks was launched in 1995 to retrieve deposits made into the three largest Swiss banks (UBS, Credit Suisse and Swiss Bank Corporation) by victims of Nazi persecution during and prior to World War II. WJC negotiations were initiated with the Government of Switzerland and Swiss banks, and later expanded to cover Swiss insurance companies,^[1] over burdensome proof-of-ownership requirements for accounts and insurance policies. Strong support from both federal and state United States politicians and officials, threats of sanctions against the three Swiss banks, as well as leaked documents from a bank guard pressured a settlement of the suit in 1998 in a U.S. court for multiple classes of people affected by government and banking practices. The Swiss government itself was not a signatory to the deal. As of early 2020, US$1.29 billion has been disbursed to approximately 458,400 claimants.

While lauded by many in the United States as a significant legal milestone for Holocaust justice,^[2] the settlement was controversial in Switzerland. Some commentators found it problematic that the amount of funds eventually disbursed significantly exceeded what was ultimately found in Swiss banks (as determined by the Volcker Commission) and that the final settlement was not based on an exact amount owed, but on a compromise between the World Jewish Congress and Swiss financial institutions amid the backdrop of the threat of U.S. sanctions against Switzerland.^[3] Others criticized the fact that, as per the terms of the settlements, the Swiss banks were also deemed financially accountable^[4] for profiting from the denial of entry of some Jews into Switzerland and for forced labor performed for the benefit of any Swiss corporation (not only banks) by Jewish refugees admitted during World War II, when decisions surrounding refugee policy and forced labor were never in the banks’ purview.^[5] The Swiss government did not participate in the settlement.