A Vote to Upend Banking as We Know It

A country synonymous with finance is holding a referendum that has voters wondering: What is money, anyway?

A decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world is still debating the causes of the financial crisis—down to the meaning of money itself.

In buttoned-down Switzerland, that debate is taking the form of a nationwide referendum set for June 10. Voters are being asked to consider fundamental questions rooted in the crisis: what is...