Weltwoche Economics Editor Claude Baumann discusses Switzerland's banking reputation in the wake of the UBS writedowns in a recent opinion piece.
Baumann is a frequent international commentator on Swiss banking. "Switzerland's banking tradition is about preserving and protecting wealth; it's not about doing deals," explained Baumann last year in the International Herald Tribune.
A pillar in Switzerland's banking pantheon, no one could have predicted that UBS was conducting its US investment banking activities with such imprudence as to lose 16 billion francs.
Baumann invites us to consider: Can a bank expect a second chance to deal with this kind of loss?
