Despite recent initiatives to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing, including legislative changes and awareness programmes, Thomas Suter of the Swiss Bankers Association observed recently, negative media depictions and several recent high profile scandals have combined to present a false image of the Swiss banking industry.

Drawing attention to 'The World Is Not Enough', a spy thriller released in 1999 which has particularly stuck in the craw of the banking sector, Mr Suter mused: 'Many people don't realise that it's not as easy as it is perhaps in the James Bond movies to launder money in Switzerland. That is an image which goes back to old spy books and films. But this is no longer the case. The banks are doing a great deal to ensure dirty money does not reach Switzerland and if it does that it is identified.'

When she assumed her position at the head of the country's Money Laundering Control Authority, Dina Balleyguier admitted that her new job was not going to be an easy one, and that prominent instances of money laundering through Switzerland's private banks were unlikely to be easily forgotten by the international community.

However, those in the know within the banking sector believe that although high profile cases of embezzlement and subsequent laundering such as that of former Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, or the late Nigerian leader Sani Abacha have not exactly been a good PR exercise for the industry, they show that the new controls which have been put in place are working.

Michel Derobert, the Secretary-General of the Swiss Private Banker's Association recently expressed his opinion on the Abacha investigation: 'It is not fantastic for the banks that did not realise Abacha or his children were tainted,' he admitted. 'But it was a success for the Swiss system as a whole. The fact that a bank went through its accounts and noticed something nasty is a sign that our anti-money laundering laws are working.'