The legendary private banker brought down by the U.S. tax investigators is back. Konrad Hummler won't return to banking, but has plans to pass on his wisdom again.

Konrad Hummler used to draw considerable crowds and for a while he represented a lot of what was good about Swiss banking.

A former executive at Swiss Bank Corporation (today's UBS), Hummler in the 1990s teamed up with Otto Bruderer and took charge of Wegelin, a St. Gallen-based private bank and then the oldest financial institution of Switzerland.

Passionate and Profound

Wegelin soon became one of the most well-known Swiss private banks. Meanwhile, Hummler made his name as a passionate and profound analyst of monetary and economic development in Switzerland and abroad – his investment advice published by Wegelin is legendary and reached a circulation of as much as 160,000.

Encouraged by his success as a commentator, Hummler took to the road for a tour of Switzerland – or rather the air as he occasionally used a helicopter for his trips. His pull was spectacular, easily filling the Kongresshaus, a large venue in Zurich.

Calling a Spade a Spade

Not so surprising perhaps, given that Hummler called a spade a spade – in a country where discretion had become the byword for bankers and even politicians.

In the heydays of the bonanza seekers, when bonuses couldn't be fat enough and red Ferraris were synonymous with banking prowess, Hummler held up a mirror to the big banks of Switzerland.

His comparison of financial products – such as collateralized debt obligations – with rotten meat, or 'Gammelfleisch', a catchword coined for meat processed in German by dodgy butchers, quickly became legendary.

But Hummler also harbored illusions about Swiss politics, promoting the idea of creating a second Singapore out of Switzerland. And he urged UBS and Credit Suisse to split off their investment banks.

The 265th Commentary

His defining moment was yet to come though. On August 24, 2009, Hummler published his 265th commentary, which urged private investors to stop investing in the U.S. This comment made him famous across the globe.

But it was also what helped accelerate his downfall. It was his bank after all that accepted as customers U.S. citizens who avoided paying taxes on their assets and who had been turned away by other Swiss firms.

The U.S. tax authorities didn't take kindly to Wegelin's business model. And Hummler later was forced to admit he had succumbed to what he called a «moment of frivolity».

Wegelin Was Toast

The rest is history. The U.S. indicted Wegelin, fined it and the bank went out of business. Raiffeisen assumed its non-U.S. customers under the umbrella of the newly founded Notenstein private bank – and the venerable name of Wegelin was no more.

And Hummler? The limelight had been switched off.

But a man who had received so much acclaim couldn't give up entirely. He founded a consultancy called M1 in St. Gallen and used it to publish a new series of economic analysis under the name of «bergsicht», or «mountainview».

In View of the Mountains

And history is about to repeat itself. Hummler will take to the roads again, starting in Zurich. He will present in person at breakfast or after-work meetings his latest edition of «bergsicht».

Hummler isn't looking to preach to the converted but exchange with a small number of interested people. He is starting in October with two events planned at Hotel Metropol in Zurich.

The small number of interested won't do, perhaps – because he urges the public to get their tickets early: «first come, first serve.»