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However, the investments did not flourish as the Chiasso bankers hoped they would. Then, in late 1976, the Italian government, which hoped to lure home lire, offered a blanket amnesty to all Italians who would bring back their money. Result: withdrawals were so large that Crédit Suisse's branch in Chiasso was forced to turn for help to the home office in Zurich. The head office's investigation led to police involvement. Three Chiasso bankers, including Branch Manager Ernst Kuhrmeier, have been arrested on charges of criminal mismanagement.
As a gesture of solidarity, the other members of the Big Three, the Swiss Bank Corporation and Union Bank of Switzerland, offered Crédit Suisse a $ 1.2 billion line of Crédit. Crédit Suisse refused the offer, explaining that it could easily absorb the Chiasso loss, and indeed that seems true. But the Chiasso affair and the other failures are raising severe questions about the efficiency, as well as the ethics of Swiss banking. Even some Swiss financiers are charging that Swiss bankers are vastly overrated and that only the constantly climbing Swiss franc makes them appear proficient. "Swiss banking relies on an old-boy network," says a Geneva banker. "That is why there are people in positions of responsibility here who could never get a job in a bank in Germany, Belgium or The Netherlands."