Thrown to the dogs

PRIZING discretion as they do, Swiss bankers prefer to avoid the limelight. Especially uncomfortable is the attention of the United States Senate, where a subcommittee headed by Carl Levin has gone after American tax dodgers and their accomplices like a starving hound chasing a fox. A hearing on UBS in 2008 led to a $780m fine for the largest Swiss bank and, in an unprecedented breach of bank secrecy, the handover of names linked to 4,700 accounts. This week it was the turn of Credit Suisse, the Alpine country’s other banking giant, to answer questions stemming from a scathing 175-page report.