Switzerland’s status as the world’s banker to the super-rich is not “god given”, the head of the one of the country’s biggest banks has warned, as the country reels from the near-collapse of Credit Suisse.
The Swiss government and regulators needed to better communicate with worried international investors, the chief executive of Julius Baer, Philipp Rickenbacher told the Financial Times, as he cautioned that the crisis of confidence in global banking was far from over.
“Things will remain very complicated — everything that was there a month ago will not go away,” Rickenbacher said, pointing to central banks’ rapid tightening of monetary policy and the stress it was putting the financial system under. “There’s still some room for policy mistakes at the highest levels when it comes to interest rates . . . everyone’s senses are sharpened right now.”