Bank Leu

Bank Leu AG (pronounced "Loy," as in toy) was a Swiss private bank that existed from 1755 to 2007. Headquartered in Zurich, it was a subsidiary of Credit Suisse from 1990. In 2007, it was merged with that company's other private banking units as Clariden Leu. At the time, it was Switzerland's oldest bank.

The bank was founded in 1758 as Leu et Compagnie, named after its founder, Johann Jacob Leu, who later became mayor of Zurich. Originally a state-owned bank, it was privatized in 1798 after Napoleon conquered Switzerland; the bank's officials did not want its assets to be taken over by Napoleon's new client state, the Helvetic Republic. In 1854, it incorporated as Leu & Co. after more than a century as a limited partnership. It became a public limited company (German: Aktiengesellschaft) in 1969.

Despite having many distinguished customers over the years (at one point, it was Maria Theresa's banker), two major scandals in the 1980s eventually cost the bank its independence.

Bank Leu's Bahamian subsidiary, Bank Leu International, was used by Dennis Levine to handle most of his insider trades. From 1981 to 1986, Levine built up his account to over $10 million USD, trading on information he acquired based on his work as an investment banker.

Levine took advantage of the Bahamas' strict bank secrecy laws (which forbid the disclosure of any information about a customer's banking relationship) to cloak his activities. Bank Leu itself had a long tradition of secrecy, and its Bahamian branch had a reputation for accepting deposits from anyone, no questions asked.

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