Switzerland’s Incredible Shrinking Financial Sector

Chocolate, cuckoo clocks, and bank secrecy were the Swiss cliches of the day when Asterix visited the “Helvetians” in his 1970 adventure. The stubborn Gaul runs into “Zurix” the banker, whose impregnable vaults and anonymous accounts are compromised. “It’s enough to make one turn neutral,” grumbles Zurix.

Such caricatures are cheap. But the Swiss aren’t laughing about their international reputation after Credit Suisse Group AG’s dramatic fall into the arms of UBS Group AG at a steep discount, wiping out a lot of bondholders, burning some shareholders and exposing taxpayers to the risk of a doubly systemic “giga-bank,” as Socialist lawmaker Samuel Bendahan calls it. The Asterix view of Brand Swiss is on the ropes — and might not fully recover in the eyes of investors, politicians and jittery clients in a world where neutrality is increasingly hard.