How very unSwiss. Comments on Monday from Credit Suisse’s chief risk officer, Tobias Guldimann, show that relations between regulators and the big Swiss banks are deteriorating. Responding to a diktat issued a fortnight ago from Philipp Hildebrand, vice-chairman of the Swiss National Bank, that UBS and Credit Suisse should introduce new caps on risk exposures, Mr Guldimann snapped: “We manage banks according to Basel II, not Hildebrand I.”

The war of words is extraordinary. Discussions between the regulators and the regulated normally take place behind closed doors. But, in a country where upheavals at UBS are front-page news, this is much more than a banking problem.