We trace our history back to the achievements of Alfred Escher, who ranks among the most distinguished Swiss personalities of the 19th century and is recognized as the founder of modern infrastructure in Switzerland for linking Northern and Southern Europe with the Gotthard tunnel.
Escher made Switzerland’s sparsely-developed railway infrastructure a political and economic priority, founding the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (today Credit Suisse) to fund the project in 1856. In doing so, Escher inaugurated the founding institution of what would become Switzerland’s globally-recognized financial center.