Pince-nez aquiver on his nose, the elegant banker leaned across the wood-inlaid desk in his Zurich office last week and complained: “We have been called Shylocks, gnomes, sinister manipulators ...

People get the wrong idea about Zurich, and I blame Harold Wilson. Back in 1956, the future Prime Minister (then a mere Shadow Chancellor) dubbed Switzerland’s bankers the “gnomes of Zurich”.

contains much of Zurich's storied history. Swiss bankers, historically called the Gnomes of Zurich, work in imposing banks on the western side of the river. On the opposing bank, you'll find Old ...