At the risk of getting downmodded for a me-too post, I'll back up olesk's statement by saying that I, too, work for a large Swiss bank (in the IT department) and I can tell you that we have several pretty large IT systems specifically devoted to checking out customers. Obviously, I can't go into details but I can say they were expensive to build and they cost the bank money to keep running. Big banks are by nature hyper-conservative and rarely spend money unless it will result in more money...either directly or by avoiding fines or minimizing risks. The customer-vetting systems are of the latter sort.

The lesson: Swiss banks are insanely strict about the customers they take on, yet some "bad apples" do get through the firewalls. As I understand it, it's these bad apples that they're working with governments to ferret out (and in the end, it will benefit the *bank* by shining their already bright reputations...reputation is everything to these firms!).