Banking in Switzerland

This work shows three specific characteristics: first, the focus of many of the investigations is on the analysis of micro data - as the issue of competitiveness is closely linked to the performance, costs and the efficiency of the production of financial services by individual banking firms, this extension of research was a natural step to take; second, since "attractiveness" was identified as the core notion when discussing the competitiveness of international finance centres, a more detailed explanation of the presence of foreign financial institutions in Switzerland was sought; finally, in many ways results pointed to the importance of the off-balance sheet business when explaining the bank's performance. Hence, the effects of foreign competition on the Swiss stock markets were incorporated into the research. The problems encountered and the solutions found in this work should be of interest for those concentrating their efforts on the study of other international financial centres.