In 2008, as the US authorities cranked up their efforts to track down tax evaders and the banks that abetted them, the Swiss Bankers Association held an emergency summit. Executives from a variety of venerable firms met in a West End hotel with the best and brightest minds they could summon from the world of public relations. Their hope: to burnish the tarnished image of Swiss banking.

Earnest discussions ensued. Stratagems were plotted. Then, a lone hand was raised. An executive from one of the banks ventured to suggest that the whole exercise was almost certainly futile. Swiss banks, he pointed out, had spent 100 or more years saying precisely nothing. In fact, silence was one of the industry's main selling points. But now they wanted to come up with a message? Well, too late.