If you think your money and other valuables are not safe enough in a traditional Swiss bank, you can safeguard them in an Alpine vault – but only if you’re ultra-rich.
In the village of Lungern, in canton Obwalden, an entrepreneur is excavating a high-security vault to house the assets of the world’s multi-millionaires.
Twenty caverns, which are being dug deep into the rocky Brünig massif, will have a level of security comparable to that of the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
If you are wondering what that entails, the central bank “maintains top-tier, classified physical and structural security for its currency and gold vaults, matching high-grade national infrastructure standards – though exact engineering specifications remain confidential for security reasons.”
Better than real estate?
As the project’s developer Thomas Gasser told RTS public broadcaster: “each cavern is sold for a 99-year term” for the minimum price of 1 million francs.
But buyers get a lot of bang for their francs.
“The advantage is that the client becomes the owner. They have their own plot number in the land registry and can even mortgage the property.”
Not the first time
While this project may sound extreme by most (non-wealthy) people’s standards, secure storage deep within the mountains is nothing new in Switzerland.
Companies around the world which want to store their sensitive data in safe underground locations are increasingly turning to Switzerland’s disused military shelters.
“These underground facilities are strictly confidential, but they do exist,” said Bastien Henri, sales manager for Bunker Swiss, a company that helps businesses find secure locations for their sensitive data.
But the demand exceeds the supply by far.
According to Henri, his company receives around 100 enquiries every week from all over the world seeking data accommodation in Swiss bunkers. There are also customers on a waiting list.
“Unfortunately, the number of available spaces can be counted on one hand,” he said, adding these sought-after storage facilities can cost “in the tens of millions of francs.”
Not for money or data only
Old army bunkers – many of them concealed in the countryside or in the mountains – were once used as underground supply facilities, ammunition depots, command posts, and even military hospitals, as well as protected air bases.
They were eventually converted for civilian purposes, but faced with the deteriorating security situation in Europe, the Swiss army is now examining the possibility of reactivating its former military bunkers to be used for protection and secure equipment storage.
READ MORE: Switzerland considers reopening its old military bunkers
