Switzerland's two largest commercial banks announced huge rises in quarterly profits over the past week, Swiss bankers were welcoming the return of large amounts of foreign cash to their vaults.
Nestled in the heart of Europe and sheltered from much of the world's strife, the wealthy little Alpine country has traditionally been a financial safehaven.
Its discreet bankers, backed by several generations of experience, point to Switzerland's stable economy and vaunt the merits of tax-beating banking secrecy laws.
And that decades-old sales pitch still appears to work magic.
UBS, the country's largest banking group, raked in a record 35 billion Swiss francs (23.3 billion dollars) in new funds under its management, as it doubled its first-quarter net profit this year to 2.42 billion Swiss francs. The wealth and asset management business was "growing fast", UBS commented last Tuesday.
A day later, its slightly smaller rival Credit Suisse announced a near seven-fold increase in its first quarter net profit to 1.86 billion Swiss francs, also partly fuelled by regained deposits.
Private banking - a personalised service aimed at the wealthy customer - attracted about two-thirds of the total amount of new assets recorded by the whole group in the three-month period, 10.8 billion Swiss francs. Private banking customers must deposit at least 500,000 Swiss francs before they can enjoy that kind of service. The threshold rises to about one million Swiss francs with some of the smaller, often family-run, private banks in Geneva or Basel.
Some of the rise might be seasonal, as the beginning of the year generally sees a slight surge in deposits, according to bankers.
But this year's experience is a far cry from just three years ago, when clients withdrew cash to cope with plunging stock markets. Assets managed by Swiss banks in 2001 fell by 8.5 percent or 316 billion Swiss francs, according to Switzerland's central bank.
UBS executives explained the new influx by pointing to old or existing customers who were entrusting more assets to the banks for them to invest.
Those deposits came mainly from Europe and Asia, they added. UBS tapped about four billion Swiss francs more from the European Union, where it has been opening new "onshore" branches recently.
"Switzerland also recouped Italian assets, which are coming back here after a short stay in Italy to take advantage of amnesty laws," a Geneva banker commented. Up to 45 billion Swiss francs were estimated to have left Switzerland for Italy in 2001 to 2002 because of Rome's tax amnesty, which was aimed at coaxing funds hidden abroad back into the domestic financial circuit.
Some financial analysts cast doubt over the reported resurgence of deposits by Italians, pointing out that it was in Swiss banks' interest to hint at returns because it discretely encourages potential customers to follow suit.
But Swiss financial circles did point to a combination of factors that play in favour of their banking industry.
They include complaints in neighbouring countries about taxation, fears of terror attacks, Switzerland's staunch defence of its banking secrecy, and the country's political stability following last year's elections
Switzerland is staying outside the expanding European Union and its regulatory environment, which is regarded as an advantage for big money. And the arrival of Christoph Blocher - a staunch isolationist and stalwart of the right-wing Swiss People's Party - in the federal government also adds a touch of conservative reassurance for wealthy foreign clients.
The combination of the two - tension abroad and a favourable political climate in Switzerland - helps to explain the unprecedented flow of money into Swiss coffers, the analyst said.
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