12 Mar 1917
Founded by Basler Handelsbank
1924
Purchase of present head office building at Aeschgraben 9
1935
Enactment of the Banking Act: Kontroll & Revisions AG established
1945
Basler Handelsbank insolvent;
management buy-out: managers become owners
1955
Set up own bank as a subsidiary
1960
Merger with Arthur Young & Co.
1969
"Integrated management consulting” concept
1989
Merger of Arthur Young and Ernst & Whinney into Ernst & Young
1997
Planned merger with KPMG
1998
Partner buy-out: launch of the partner system
2002
Takeover of employees from Arthur Andersen Switzerland
2008
Combined 87 international subsidiaries to form EMEIA region
2013
Ernst & Young becomes EY with 11 offices in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
2017
12 Mar 2017 – 100 years EY Switzerland
The story begins on 12 March 1917, in the midst of World War I, one day after mutiny broke out among Russian soldiers in Petro-grad and Baghdad was captured by British troops. On that Monday, Basler Handelsbank (BHB) founded a company called Verwaltungs-, Revisions- und Treuhand AG, with its registered office in Basel.4 From these modest origins, following multiple mutations and mergers, EY Switzerland as we know it today came into being.
continue
First entry of Verwaltungs-, Revisions- und Treuhand AG in the Commercial Register of the Canton of Basel-Stadt.
Just ten years after the end of World War I, the worst economic crisis of modern times took hold. In Germany and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment peaked at over 20 percent in 1932. Banks collapsed, currencies depreciated dramatically, tariff barriers were erected and international trade imploded. In 1932, the British historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that, for the first time, men and women across the globe were openly discussing “whether the western social system would fall apart”. Switzerland was rocked by the global turbulence. Exports plummeted by 50 percent, and several large banks were brought to the brink of bankruptcy; the crisis looked like it would never end, resulting in record-high rates of unemployment. The Swiss government and the Swiss National Bank had to ward off a collapse in order to prevent a systemic banking crisis. Only when the Swiss franc started to depreciate in autumn 1936 did the storm clouds begin to disperse.
continue
From 1932 to 1968, ATAG in Zurich was housed in the old stock exchange building at Bahnhofstrasse 3.
The disaster of World War II was, quite unexpectedly, followed by an extended period of prosperity. It was as if Europe was finally being compensated for the hardships and sacrifices of its many wars and crises. Average income increased four-fold within the space of just thirty years – a historic record. Globally, too, the “Trente Glorieuses”, as the boom from 1945 to 1975 was known, was like nothing seen before. Both the planned economy of the Soviet Union and the former colonies of Asia and Africa saw unprecedented levels of growth. Some countries, specifically Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, also managed to catch up with the rich western industrial nations. By the mid-1970s, the world had changed utterly from what it had been in 1945.
continue
Work on IBM 1050, a machine for transmitting data, 1963.
The 1980s saw the global economy gripped by a new wave of globalisation. The dismantling of tariff barriers, the liberalisation of capital movements and technological innovations made the earth flatter than ever before. In 1980, the share of global trade in gross national product was 39 percent; twenty years later it was 52 percent. The daily forex trading volume increased from $ 70 billion to $ 1.5 trillion. The capitalisation of the world’s listed companies rose from less than $ 5 trillion to over $ 30 trillion.
continue
Hornussen meets baseball. Upon joining Ernst & Young Inter- national, ATAG uses its review of the 1990 financial year to underscore its international focus.
The 21st century got off to a dramatic start – with the stock market crash from 2000 to 2002, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and two military interventions in the Middle East. In Switzerland, the grounding of the Swissair Group in October 2001 reverberated throughout the worlds of politics and industry. Nevertheless, the trend towards global economic integration continued unabated. December 2001 saw China join the World Trade Organisation. The share of world trade in global economic output increased further, while the national capital markets gradually merged to form a single platform. The earth was getting flatter and flatter.
continue
Bruno Chiomento (CEO, 2009–2016) and Thomas Stenz (Chairman of the Board of Directors, 2009–2014) in front of the “platform” in 2010.
Publisher
Ernst & Young AG
Authors
Adrian Lemmenmeier, Prof. Dr. Tobias Straumann
Project Management
Jacqueline Leichsering
Concept and Design
Tanja Martin
Proofreading
Textschiff – Christina Bösel
Images
EY Archive Switzerland
Cover: Till Forrer
Images 1: Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt, NEG 6516
Typesetting and Design
TGG Hafen Senn Stieger
Edition
3000
Paper
Lessebo 1.3 rough natural, 100 g/m²
Printer
Villiger Druck AG
Book Binding
Schumacher AG
Realisation Website
Creative Minds
ISBN 978-3-7291-1160-8
VGS Verlagsgenossenschaft St. Gallen
