So close to each other on either side of Zurich’s exclusive Bahnhofstrasse that staff can wave to each other through the windows, stand the headquarters of two venerable banks. Between them, they rule the Swiss banking market and both are world leaders in the archetypally Swiss and highly lucrative business of private banking.
Both had built strong corporate banks but, until a few years ago, Credit Suisse was the clear winner in investment banking, especially in the cut-throat US market. Its merger with white shoe US house First Boston had propelled it into an exclusive group of top tier, global investment banks, to which UBS, particularly before its merger with Swiss Bank Corporation, had not gained entry.
