Back in 1852, a guy named Alfred Escher really loved the railway business in Switzerland. So much so that he got some politicians to pass a law that would keep Switzerland from ever nationalizing the railway system. But, having protected the railways to be private enterprises, those pesky French banks started investing in the Swiss railways and were possibly looking to gain control over them.
French banks influencing Swiss railways was not what Escher had in mind so he created the Swiss Credit Institution in 1856. This was the birth of Credit Suisse and it's primary purpose was to provide credit to the privately owned railway systems in Switzerland.
Credit Suisse would grow to become the very definition of what great banking was supposed to be. Very discreet, very safe and for the most part, very boring.
Switzerland would become defined by its intense commitment to neutrality during the century of world wars and cold wars. Credit Suisse would become the world's safe haven for banking during war time. Chief financial officers, political leaders, treasury secretaries, money launderers, tax avoiders, the super-rich and spies would all find themselves visiting Switzerland to meet with their Swiss banker and, more often than not, that Swiss banker worked at Credit Suisse.
After World War 2, Credit Suisse would become a financial services monolith with tentacles reaching into every facet of the industry everywhere in the developed world.
Credit Suisse would ride through the banking crisis of 2008 relatively unscathed but that would only lead it to become ever more arrogant and corrupt when it came to the unholy leveraging of debt.
The legacy of the "Swiss banker" was tossed aside in pursuit of the derivatives trader who generated crazy profits in exchange for taking on poorly understood risks. For the past 15 years, Credit Suisse has been a tarnished brand and the current CEO was trying to figure out how to unwind the company's biggest mistakes.
Many financial leaders, including the top executives at Credit Suisse thought they were great investors but they were living in a world where inflation was almost zero and government's loaned money almost for free. Everybody is a good investor under those conditions, even me. But, big time bankers give themselves the credit for their success instead of the environment.
When inflation kicked in and interest rates rose quickly, this was nothing more than a return to normal conditions that existed for decades. The current challenges in the economy are not extreme unless you are a banker/investor who has been stupid drunk leveraging debt.
And so, in the course of 3 days, the greatest brand in the history of banking, the brand name associated with what it means to be a banker, this institution that stood for 167 years is gone.
While you are reading this, the Credit Suisse logo is being pulled off of buildings, the stationery with that logo is being thrown out, the business cards are in garbage cans, and the online presence is being replaced with USB branding.
Gone in a heartbeat. The times they are a-changin.