Banks don't have a good name, it's not just the Swiss. I mean they have a good name among the corrupt and the rich who love their help laundering money, skirting laws, and socializing their losses. Among the common person, regard for banks probably sits somewhere between politician and lawyer.

The historic reasons for the us taking a at the swiss have been the hidden, non declared tax moneys from american people and corporations. The Swiss had a cloaking system in place called banking secrecy, it was even codified into law.

America wanted whats owed to them and that was it.

Swiss bankers would fly to the us physically, in person, pick up funds and goods like diamonds and transport them to switzerland without declaring anything. All the little tricks like labelling the funds fraudulently, diamonds in a toothpaste tube, that was part of the service portfolio.

The us promised to sue and the whole decisionmakers knew they will be safe nowehere but in switzerland, a small country with sub par weather, and if the us got hold of them, they will spend a good time of their lifes behind bars. The swiss banking secrecy laws were thus burried for good. The swiss still had the cheek to blather about data protection and privacy and then agreed to hand over a portfolio of "suspicious" accounts.

How hypocritical this was was shown later on, when it became impossible in switzerland and europe for americans to open bank accounts unless employed in Switzerland and being residents.

You say banks have a bad reputation overall, but somehow the swiss banks had a better reputation, even though they are on a level with a carribean tax haven operator.

During world war II the swiss national bank took all of the gold looted by the nazis - these were astronomical sums, it's really a shameful chapter of their history which is not widely known.

In addition to turning back Jewish refugees at the border. Also the swiss government even requested the nazis to mark the passports of Jews, so that they could be better turned down at the border.

https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%2060...

Also there was a big court case during the nineties, because credit suisse withheld the money of holocaust victims, while at the same time former nazi officials had no problems with their accounts - all at the same bank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jewish_Congress_lawsuit_...

https://www.ft.com/content/f80088e4-5f0d-11ea-8033-fa40a0d65...

Well, it's a question of scale: swiss banks took in hundreds of billions of swiss francs out of the loot - that must be an astronomical figure, in today's money.

But even that has apparently been squandered by the super competent swiss bankers...