With two World Wars, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the first half of the 20th century was a difficult period for private bankers. However, the end of the Second World War allowed private bankers to grow more vigorously than ever before and to position themselves as ‘the recognised specialists in wealth management’. Several factors contributed to their success: the fact that Switzerland had remained outside the conflicts that ravaged the rest of Europe, ‘the country's exceptional political stability’, the acceleration of banking and financial disintermediation in the 1980s and 1990s, the globalisation and deregulation of financial markets, and the liberalisation of capital flows. These developments boosted wealth management.