The lead-up to Christmas 2008 has been far from the sleepy, festive wind-down that private bankers are used to. Wealth managers in Zurich and Geneva have their work cut out with a wholesale rebuilding of business models and a deep probe of client portfolios to check the reliability of assets.

Examining the record of UBS and the broader industry at the recent FT Private Banking Summit in Geneva, Juerg Zeltner, a bank board member and head of wealth management for north, east and central Europe, admitted to having disappointed the key private client customer base, many of whom voted with their feet. The third quarter of 2008 saw outflows of SFr49.3bn (£30.5bn, $45.7bn) from his division, compared with SFr19.3bn in the second quarter.