The Ospel style
The road to the top
The future of Switzerland
Swiss banks and the holocaust
It's hard to think of a bank that has changed so much in so short a time.
In 1990, Swiss Bank Corporation was the weakest of the big three Swiss banks, and had a decidedly mediocre international business. The previous year, for instance, it had ranked only 36th in the Eurobond league table.
But that year the bank set in motion a far-sighted programme to reinvent itself as a top international investment bank. Within five years it made three startling acquisitions. In 1992 it bought O'Connor Partners, the Chicago-based derivatives boutique; in 1994 the large US asset manager Brinson Associates; and in 1995 SG Warburg. The three acquisitions brought new blood to the firm. The old-fashioned Swiss bankers were sidelined and replaced by younger, technically more competent Americans and Britons.
The success of...
