À propos de ce lieu
Paradeplatz is the beating heart of Swiss banking: a former pig market that became the most expensive square on the Swiss Monopoly board, framed by the Kreditanstalt palace, completed in 1876, that served as Credit Suisse's headquarters, the rival UBS, the Savoy hotel and the Confiserie Sprüngli. In 2019 it was also the power base behind Switzerland's most talked about corporate spy affair. When wealth management chief Iqbal Khan left for UBS, the bank's inquiry later concluded that its chief operating officer had ordered him watched. For seven business days in September, private detectives followed Khan, until on 17 September he spotted three men tailing him and his wife by car. The chase ended outside the Metropol restaurant behind the Swiss National Bank, just two blocks from here, with a struggle over his phone in front of passers by. Three men were arrested, the operating chief and the head of security resigned, and in February 2020 the chief executive, cleared by the inquiry, stepped down as well. In 2023, Credit Suisse itself was swallowed by UBS, the very rival it had feared.
À retenir
- 7 business days — Private detectives tailed Iqbal Khan from 4 to 17 September 2019, before he spotted them.
- 3 men arrested — Zurich police arrested the three men after Khan filed a complaint for coercion and threats.
- 7 planned observations — The Swiss regulator FINMA found that Credit Suisse planned seven observations between 2016 and 2019.