A financial centre in the shadow of Zurich

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Basel is the second-oldest banking city of Switzerland after Geneva and the seat of the oldest international financial institution in the world, although Zurich and Geneva both exceed it in size as financial centres. Zurich, home to the headquarters of UBS, the former Credit Suisse, the Swiss stock exchange, the largest insurers and most of the large asset managers, has long been the dominant centre. Geneva has the largest concentration of private banks and of commodity trade finance, while Lugano serves the Italian clientele. Basel occupies a particular position among them: smaller than Zurich and Geneva in banking, it hosts the Bank for International Settlements and its committees, the Swiss Bankers Association, two cantonal banks, a group of private banks of long standing and the treasury departments of two of the largest pharmaceutical groups in the world.¹

The financial sector contributes significantly to the economy of the Basel region, although less than in Zurich or Geneva. Banks, insurers, asset managers, pension funds and the related professional services employ several thousand people in the canton of Basel-Stadt. The weight of the pharmaceutical industry, which generates a much larger share of the region's value added, gives Basel a distinctive economic profile: a financial centre that serves, more than in any other Swiss city, the needs of global industrial companies, their employees and the families that own them.

This chapter describes the institutions of the Basel banking landscape: UBS, which retains a legal seat in Basel, the cantonal banks of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, the private banks, the foreign banks and independent asset managers, and the institutions that make Basel a centre of banking policy. It also examines the collapse of Credit Suisse in 2023 and its consequences, which affect the whole Swiss financial centre.

Notes

On the relative size of the Swiss financial centres (Zurich, Geneva, Lugano, Basel) by employment and value added, see the reports of the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) and of BAK Economics on the Swiss financial sector. To be verified. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

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A financial centre in the shadow of Zurich

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?