In popular culture, there is nowhere safer to stash your cash than the vault of a Swiss bank. From thrillers to spy novels, Swiss bankers are depicted as discreet men in suits who know which questions not to ask. As James Bond quipped in The World Is Not Enough: “If you can’t trust a Swiss banker, what’s the world come to?”
Switzerland dismisses such stereotypes as lazy and outdated. But its reputation as one of the premier tax havens has not come out of nowhere. The country has nurtured, codified and even advertised the discretion of its bankers for centuries, enjoying lucrative returns as wealthy elites flocked to the Alps to stockpile their riches.
