“Five-star” dinners, private excursions and meetings with heads of state: this is how the meetings of the secret club of Western bankers have been held for more than 70 years. According to The Financial Times, the last meeting of Europe’s 40 most influential financiers took place at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich at the end of October 2023.
The members of the meeting had a one-on-one conversation with the Swiss Finance Minister, Karina Keller-Sutter, and the President of the country’s Central Bank, Thomas Jordan. The only topic revealed: the bankruptcy of the country’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse, in March 2023. For privacy reasons, conversation protocols, as well as lists of their participants, are not maintained.
The Swiss bank Credit Suisse was on the verge of bankruptcy in March 2023 and was eventually absorbed by the financial holding company UBS Group AG.
Photo: Shutterstock
The organizer of these events is the International Institute for Banking Studies, founded in 1950 in Paris by the directors of four banks: Crédit Industriel et Commercial, UBS, Société Générale de Belgique and Amsterdamsche Bank. The aim of the institute is to discuss at the highest level and on a regular basis changes in the banking sector and the international monetary system.
Thanks to the rules of absolute confidentiality, for 73 years, the heads of the largest banks, presidents and leading figures of the countries were able to agree on cooperation within the club and discuss the improvement of the global economy. This was especially useful for representatives of those countries that, for the rest of the world, were in a state of hostility and supposedly did not want to have common affairs.
“It’s not like Davos, where anyone can buy a ticket,” said one former member, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Our club is truly exclusive.”
The organization does not have its own website, its members are strongly advised not to talk about meetings and agreements reached. However, the meetings also include an entertainment part: in addition to staying for three days in expensive hotels, the bankers visit boutiques, visit historical sites and try food from the country’s best chefs.
The first meeting of financiers took place in Paris and for the next 59 years their meetings received virtually no press coverage. For example, during the entire existence of the club in the archives of the Italian bank Intesa, only 18 photographs were found, taken mainly during “trips” to museums and restaurants.
The exception was the 2010 meeting in Stockholm, a few days before which the head of the Swedish bank Handelsbanken, Per Boman, acknowledged the existence of the club and publicly accused it of luxury in the midst of the eurozone debt crisis. According to Boman, four dozen bankers lived in the five-star Grand Hôtel, dined in expensive restaurants and went to the opera. Wives were offered a tour of local shops as a leisure activity.
In 2010, the director of the Swedish bank Handelsbanken, Per Boman, admitted the existence of the club and publicly accused it of luxury. Photo: handelsbanken.com
Other famous “Secret Areopagus” activities include snowmobiling on the ice fields of Reykjavik in 2007 and a visit to St. George’s Castle in Lisbon followed by van rides and tasting of pastel de nata (Portuguese tarts) in 2019 .
As for the high-ranking guests, in addition to the Swiss representatives, sources revealed the identity of other personalities. Notably, Prince Andrew attended the meetings in 2000 and 2009, and the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, in 2015.
