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Two decades ago, Swiss banking pushed the self-destruct button. Today, we have a top banker remanded in custody and an industry in intense soul-searching. Little surprise that nobody wants to be a banker anymore.

The fall from grace of Raiffeisen’s ex-boss Pierin Vinzenz is but the last example for the steady decline of Swiss banking. Once the epitome of security, competence and reliability, the slow descent began some twenty years ago. The rot became all too apparent through a number of events – as an incomplete list compiled by finews.com shows.

1. Dormant Accounts – a Symbolic Breach

Swiss banking was in blindsided by the class action launched by Jewish claimants in the mid-1990s. The attempt to smooth over the dormant accounts accusations and talk down any fallout was naïve. The bankers badly underestimated the historic dimension of the demands.

It was the first time that the once-admired Swiss bankers in corpore stood accused in front of an international audience. With hindsight, the controversy was the big watershed.

2. Credit Suisse – Big Bank in Big Trouble

Credit Suisse was a big player in the wheeling-dealing of the dotcom-euphoria of the late 1990s – Frank Quattrone was the name that became associated with the big-buck-investment banking times. At the beginning of this century, Credit Suisse had a higher market cap than UBS for a time. But when the new economy went bust and the stock market turned sour, so did Credit Suisse.

CEO Lukas Muehlemann, one of the first top bankers turned star executive in Swiss business, had to leave. And ever since, Credit Suisse kept its badge as the gambler bank.

3. Sarasin and the Cum-Ex-Sophistry

Sarasin, the noble private bank that later became the major part of J. Safra Sarasin, used a legal loophole in Germany between 2002 and 2012, offering its rich clientele so-called cum-ex investment products. They were based on repayment claims for the capital gains tax. After a while, the German authorities caught on, blocking the tax and clients couldn’t access their assets anymore.

The system was damaging for Swiss banking because Sarasin had promised to only bank with clean assets and it had to compensate a string of clients for their losses.